The new beginning

October 17, 2014
Day 170

My Aunt Nancy and Andy's Uncle Fai have now left this life here behind, but their journeys are only just beginning. 

This week is over, but new beginnings wait just around the corner.  All deaths, all separations, all endings are really just beginnings, new starts to new realities.  We can mourn for the ending, but we may as well mourn for the end of each minute, or each second.  Endings keep happening all the time, and new beginnings always follow.

In this week of death I've just gone through, one truth has appeared time and time again: life goes on.  When one of us dies, our loved ones will hopefully mourn our passing, but soon enough, life will continue.  New plans will be made, new adventures will be found, and new tomorrows will unfold ...without us.

The time we're given here on Earth is brief, and it's all ours to do with as we wish.  We can choose to be grumpy and mean, rude and judgmental, or we can be kind to every person we meet, embracing strangers like they are our neighbors, and maybe even our family.

When you cross a long beach and finally reach the sea, you haven't reached the end of everything.  All you've found is a new reality.  Your legs cannot take you across the ocean the same way they brought you across the sand.  New methods of traveling will be needed, and a new vessel.  The journey doesn't end, only the way we journey forward.

So today, as my week of death ends, I see new beginnings.  I see families who will heal and recover, who will live on and see new adventures, even though their loved one is no longer there on the sand with them.  They stare out at the ocean before them, the mysteries of life blowing through the air, and they know new vessels took their loved one forward.  And for now, all they can do is wave goodbye, and maybe take some time to appreciate this place at their feet right now, where the ocean meets the sand.