Breathing Free: saying goodbye and embracing life
The rain arrived six nights ago. It signaled the end, more or less, of summer. More importantly, while it didn’t put any of the fires out on its own, it certainly helped the firefighting crews in catching and containing the many fires raging in this region.
Since then, the air here has been joyously clear. It’s amazing how ten or so days of thick smoke and hazardous air quality can make you appreciate normally clean air. I must make a concerted effort to never take the simple act of breathing, and the gift that is two lungfulls of fresh air, for granted.
On another note, separate from this but somehow linked in my mind, I joined my father and sister yesterday in placing my mother’s earthly remains (ashes) in their final resting place. She passed in February (from cancer, not Covid), and her memorial service was thankfully done before the Covid lockdown. But due to Covid and some other (albeit lesser) concerns, we had not been able to inter her cremains at the cemetery for more than seven months.
Now, in my conscious mind, this was not a gigantic deal. My belief system teaches that the spirit is attached to the body for only a short while, and that upon death the spirit as the essence of the person leaves the body. In other words, my mother’s ashes are just ashes, and she herself is elsewhere now. But regardless of this belief I espouse, I felt it was still a journey and somewhat of a relief to have closure on this.
As part of this feeling, I am convinced that part of the experience we call “life” is about struggling with, acknowledging, and finally accepting that all things in this life are temporary. The ephemeral nature of life is a fundamental, inseparable element of it. As part of being alive, you must say goodbye to things, places, and people. To hoard or cling to any of these is to be stuck. This does not mean we have to forget them or fail to honor/grieve them. It means we have to move on in a good and healthy way, if we want to embrace living. Moving on, even if painful or awkward at times, can be one of the best things in life, like a breath of fresh air.
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