Snowy Thoughts

This morning snow is piling up around my house. I know many people hate the sight, because of the problems it will cause them. But I don’t have to leave my house today, so I can thoroughly enjoy its beauty. The branches of the trees bend with their heavy white covering, almost touching the ground in supplication, like a monk bowing before an honored guest.

 

Winter can be terrible at times, hard to bear. But it can also be stunningly beautiful. This is true of dying as well. Much of what a dying person and family will have to endure is difficult and painful. But, if they can just open their eyes to the wonder and mystery of the process they may be able to appreciate its beauty as well. That beauty doesn’t just come from the love and devotion that we usually see. There is something about life being stripped down to its bare essentials in the dying process that is beautiful.

 

And again, even more than that—and in a way that is hard to put into words—there is something magnificent about a life coming to completion; the person following an internal, organic imperative to let go of their body. In the presence of dying I always feel the urge to bow—at least internally—in respect for the preciousness of that individual’s life and the mystery dying reveals.