
16/01/2025
Death, loss and grief.
This week I’d planned to post about dealing with loss - thinking of the devastation of the fires of California - the homes lost, the animals lost.
Yet, I have been tending myself through a different grief …
… the death of my Godfather, who died after a short illness, in the early hours of Monday morning.
I was fortunate to spend time with him in his last days and years.
I was fortunate to see him live a full and long life ( unlike my parents who both died in my teens ).
I see death often in my work with elderly pets.
Their bodies grow old and frail, unable to contain their spirit anymore.
Every death is different.
Yet there is always a time when the body lets go.
For the elderly it’s like an old coat being cast off or dropped, no longer needed.
With the animals, I always see their spirit soar, expanding from that small container, into greatness.
I believe it is the same for us too.
This week I remebered what it was like seeing life slipping away from a loved one.
I’d forgotten the strangeness of that, having a loved one alive one day and dead the next.
To then walk down the street looking at people and thinking how they too will die, how everyone dies.
Then the next day remembering how everyone lives, reminded that before we die we get to live, we get to experience the fullness of this corporeal existence.
And that’s what I wanted to remind people of today.
If we’re reading this, we’re alive.
May we live well and fully.
May we fully experience the beauty of all that life has to offer while we are here.
May we surf the challenges that life brings us - riding those waves of challenge as best we can.
May we be loving and gentle with ourselves when we get tumbled under by a wave or find ourselves in the midst of a great storm.
And may we fondly remember those who are no longer with us and how they enriched our lives ✨