further

In my previous post when I quoted Alan Watts saying that he wanted to

realize absolutely that

life and death are two sides of the same coin,

it struck a deep chord in me.


A 'radical acceptance of death'
can be a learned approach
to life,
as can clouding ones' perspective
with fear and ignorance.



At the time of my grandfather's death when I was eleven, innately I had no fear of what was occurring. Somehow I was very in touch with the
natural process of him passing,
including the months leading up to that afternoon,
after we had gotten the morning call
that the time was near.
yet at the end, I was excluded.
sent to sit in the waiting room by myself.


We all do the best we can,
and nurses do their jobs.
they (nor did I then) did not know how deeply I was
feeling this loss.
those weren't just tears
because he was gone.
I also lost part of my voice.
and I was cheated out of experiencing

that part of the grieving process

in the moment.

Untouched grief lies dormant,
and when it rises up
beckoning and then
demanding to be
seen and felt at last,
it is an opportunity for healing and forgiveness,
and reclaiming wholeness...


Back to realizing how life and death being
two sides of the same coin
 is vitally important in learning to embrace life,
and to live in possibility.

Aha!

Both are equally juicy, complex topics!

They are only as 'out there'
as we choose to keep them...

further 'food' for thought...

Though we live in a largely hands-off culture, especially when it comes to the actual process of dying, it is completely within our rights to organize our own

home funeral:

A noncommercial, family centered response to death that involves the family and its social community in the care and preparation of the body for burial or cremation, and/or in planning and carrying out related rituals or ceremonies, and/or in the burial or cremation itself.

There are also people
offering compassionate support

for the final transition process.

“I request that my body in death be buried, not cremated, so that the energy content contained within it gets returned to the earth so that flora and fauna can dine upon it just as I have dined upon flora and fauna throughout my life.” —Neil deGrasse Tyson

Since our bodies have many toxins in them,
not to mention the added pollutants like formaldehyde and embalming agents in traditional preservation,

this woman presenting her mushroom burial suit
 takes the green burial a step further,

which for me is quite possibly an ultimate way of

leaving the world better than I found it...

♥