We really do die

It’s a fact that this body is fragile

That one day strangers will have to handle

All of its dead weight

Lumping

Into a coffin, smelling strongly of formaldehyde

Place in the ground

While some people stand around above

We lie inert

As they backfill with dirt

Which sounds horrifying

Except that “we” are not there

We is gone

Along with I

And the thousands of thoughts a second that we have, are stopped

We cease

We die

All of that striving

And worrying

And surviving

Is gone

Goodbye

So long

I’m not going to debate what happens next

It doesn’t matter to me anymore

Although it once did

I used to continually worry about what’s next

Now all I am concerned about is

Did I live

Did I really live

Because that is all there is

In the end – it is really the end of life as we know it so

Breathe the wind

Enjoy the sun

Enjoy your skin

And everything that thrives within

Because that’s all there is

We live

Happy Mother’s Day – and I say that with a wry smile – where the hell did all that come from?

Deep for a Sunday morning yes?

Actually it came from reading another bloggers post which triggered my own memory of something that touched me last week

An archeological show – they found a 1400 year old grave with the corpse of a woman inside.

What was rare about the find was her hair, it was preserved in the plait that lay across her shoulder

Her toes were pointed inwards – all her clothes had long disintegrated but her hair – rich dark brown and plaited was preserved

It touched that transitory spark of humanity inside of me – I felt a little inside out in the moment

You know, like usually it is the human that has a soul inside – or that is how we sort of view ourselves when we bother to stop and think

Or perhaps that’s just me

Anyway, it was the reverse, in that moment I felt like a timeless soul surrounding and witnessing the insignificant humanity inside of the much bigger picture

In me, in her and in the people discovering her body beneath the earth

Our earth, her earth

The same earth and yet different

What is certain is nobody (no body) gets out of here

We are all here – in death or life – we are here on earth – in it , on it, back in it again

Whatever happens next doesn’t matter because whatever it is we won’t be us as we know it

All that matters is that we live, we enjoy, we breathe and truly appreciate what a miracle it is to be alive

Some religions meditate on death to remind them of the sacred blessing that is life

I guess this is my meditation now

This 1400 year old corpse

With a plait of rich brown hair – plaited after her death by loving hands and placed just so on her shoulder

And her pointed in toes – headed nowhere anymore but declaring – once they were feet who walked and danced on the earth – now still and buried within it

Everything she loved and experienced, long gone, along with her moment – her moment to be human

Life is amazing and precious and even if circumstances are troublesome or truly suck right now for you – I hope you can watch the rising sun in awe, because right now, this moment, we are alive

And that is miraculous

We are souls having a human experience, a small slice of an enormous pie – enjoy the taste

We’re only here for awhile

A moment

*header photo a snap from one of my long rambly walks. Lately I’ve had the realisation that I don’t have to travel to some amazing place and then hike – I can just walk out my front door and onto the stock routes and dirt tracks that extend for miles.

I mean, this is not news, I’ve always walked or run in the mornings around home it is just that now I go further – like big 10-15km further and longer

I walk for a couple of hours with my dog – I have a particular route with an old abandoned house on a hill – same thing

It reminds me

Someone went to a great deal of effort long ago to build it

Now it’s falling down

Self improvement – sure it matters

Just until you get smart enough to realise that it doesn’t

Not in the grand scheme of things

Only a small amount of things really matter – but they matter a great deal

And I’m rambling …