Death
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1
When someone’s time comes and they pass beyond the veil it is a sad experience for those who remain in this world. We can usually take some consolation if their passing was from natural causes. Last year my friend’s mother passed away after a long battle with ovarian cancer. When she finally left us, her death felt more like a release then anything else. Her immortal soul was freed from her suffering body.
When people have their lives ripped from them by murder, no part of my mind is able to comprehend it. It is so much harder to cope with death when it comes without reason or warning. The violence humanity seems capable of inflicting upon one another is so overwhelming, it sometimes feels as if our culture is addicted to violence more than love. It pushes my mind to into an emotional void that I do not like the dwell it but that is very hard to escape from. Oddly I feel no vengeance towards towards those who steal these lives, somehow my heart cannot contribute to the violence their actions spawns.
I can’t honestly say that I feel compassion for these people either, I want to feel outraged, but I just feel tremendous sadness. I wonder what forces in life push a person into believing hatred and murder are acceptable? Though I am not Christians I have usually found comfort in the words above from Ecclesiastes, I recognize that my soul needs to believe that there is a reason for everything. However if you read the passage further it goes on to say that there is a time for killing, war and hate. All of which I do not have room for in my heart. Maybe an Ojibway prayer is more fitting:
Grandfather,
Look at our brokenness.We know that in all creation
Only the human family
Has strayed from the Sacred Way.We know that we are the ones
Who are divided
And we are the ones
Who must come back together
To walk in the Sacred Way.Grandfather,
Sacred One,
Teach us love, compassion, and honor
That we may heal the Earth
And heal each other.
People often say that we must heal the earth for the sake of our children, because they are the ones who will inherit it, but I wonder, who will heal humanity? We are broken too. Do we have what it takes to heal the earth and heal each other?