On death & the dying

"If you find the concept of a dead loved one greeting you on your deathbed impossible or ridiculous, consider [this]: You protect your children from household dangers. You hold their hands when they cross the street on their first day of school. You take care of them when they have the flu, and you see them through as many milestones as you can.

Now fast-forward 70 years after you, yourself, have passed away. What if there really is an afterlife and you receive a message that your son or daughter will be dying soon? If you were allowed to go to your child, wouldn't you?

While death may look like a loss to the living, the last hours of a dying person may very well be filled with fullness rather than emptiness. Sometimes all we can do is embrace the unknown and unexplainable and make our loved ones feel good about their experiences.

The saying goes, 'We come into this world alone, and we leave alone.' We've been brought up to believe that dying is a lonely, solitary event. But what if everything we know isn't true? What if the long road that you thought you'll eventually have to walk alone has unseen companions?" -CNN

I rediscovered the the article above when I was cleaning out my inbox. It got me thinking about life & loss & the so-called afterlife ..be it eternal life, life after death, or just plain death. What is it? What is death? What's life, for that matter?

If blood stopped coursing throughout this intricate conglomeration of flesh & blood I've been dragging around for these past twenty-some years at this very moment, what would ensue? If, for whatever odd reason, my oxygen supply ran dry, what would follow? Is it as they say in Lost, Live together, die alone? Or could it be that some simply live alone & die unnoticed? When my day comes.. when my last earthly breath escapes & I'm laid to rest, returning to the dust of the ground, where will I find myself? Alone? Pained? At peace? Will I find life in death? Will you?