In February 2012 I posted a blog that focused on the death of my Uncle Alvin. The blog is entitled “The Preciousness of Life”. Alvin was my Dad’s only brother. He was a few months shy of his 90th birthday.
This week I attended the funeral of his former wife, my Aunt Betty, the mother of their three children. She was 6 days away from turning 90. Both had lived full lives and yet both seemed to have died before their time. How is that?
Although the two parents of my cousins had gone their separate ways many years ago, both continued to live life fully. At each memorial service many spoke about how they shared their unique gifts with family, friends, and community.
Betty was a member of the Red Hat Society and several members of the group came dressed up in their bright purple and reds, making a statement about being yourself no matter what age. Betty was very much herself up to the end. There were photos of her wearing purple tinted sun glasses in the shape of hearts while sitting in a wheel chair. Her son, John, spoke about how she would lift herself out of the chair and declare she was going to get better!
Betty was unique in so many ways. She was my first teacher of astrology, when there were few who knew much about it. She was proud of herself as a Taurus. She loved to help people and took care of many ill and elderly. Her greatest love, besides her kids and grandchildren, were flowers. She would weed other people’s gardens as if they were her own, just to see the flowers grow more beautifully.
As I reflected on both of their lives, I could not help but think of the title of the earlier blog and reflect on how precious are the lives we live in these human bodies. When someone lives 89 years and they still seemed to have died too young, you know they were truly living until the end. They were living and giving to those around them.
My work is centered around the idea of living Heaven on Earth. What that means to me is to live here and now, on this planet, with all the love and light we can embody – not waiting until death to experience it. It means living with joy, laughter, forgiveness, and gratitude. When we do that, we bless those around us. We lift our vibration and the vibration of others.
Life is precious. When we remember that, we live more fully, give more freely, and make this a better world just by being in it. Then when we make our transition into a different form of living, those left behind can be enriched by the memories.
Namaste.