LIfe or Death

 

Born to live, love, experience life every moment through crystal clear times when one thing leads to the other in sync with everything accordingly. There is a rhythm, structure, a set path before you. A predictable schedule, commitments and appointments. Then there are days when the view is blurred, things do not make sense and seem to be out of whack. You get on with it anyway and hope things work out and become clear and managable. Tides turn in surprising directions and we respond in kind armed with common sense and the hope and faith in better things to come.

For all of lifes certainties there are times we do not see coming like the death of a loved one. We are shocked when one day we are lunching and laughing, appreciating eachothers company and the next week you receive a call a seemingly ordinary friendly, loving call describing an intense medical diagnosis and bleak prognosis. You begin to realize the loved-one is trying to tell you their days are limited beyond ways we could have predicted. The pain is a blunt force to the head and heart. 

Word from a close family member leaves you numb as notification of the passing of our loved one sends shock waves over you like a tsunami of pain and disbelief. Is it more bearable to be prepared for the death of a loved one or is it somehow less painful to be blindsided by death. Either way, the death of a longstanding friend, a sister from another mother, is as sad and heart whenching as the satisfaction of knowing you shared so much life with such a special person. 🕊

Layers

Layers of life stack-up, spread-out and shape one's way. It happens in an instant and over a period of time with the subtlty of a wrecking ball or a whisper. Changes occur without warning and can leave one feeling better or battered and bruised. The laws of peaceful living easily disrupted by a layer of messy consequences or leave one feeling lifted, new and improved. It all depends on the type of layer life is dealing or has dealt. The layers of emotion, thoughts, feelings, forms of communication, natural, supernatural elements that are artificial or authentic, simple and complicated, hard not to take personally and every stunning to stinkin layer, are best handled with care, peace and love.

Layers of love can resemble a beautiful bright moon or amazing sunset spectacular and filled with every single glimmer of light and goodness that it illuminates. Layers of love can be dark and tear one's heart out left in the middle of nowhere. Love's layers abound, sometimes predictable or full of surprises, the duration and quality of it's very presence are ultimately left to it's own conclusions, mysteriously woven into life as miraculously as life itself.

Layers of sight, sound, smell and touch can be as transparent as air, shake you to the core with sorrow or leave you speechless from delight, humbled and in awe and in appreciation of the moment. The sight of something rare and wonderful as a beautiful butterfly floating along it's merry way, creates a layer of euphoria while the sight of someone suffering is heart wrenching and weighs heavy on your mind. The layers of sound like laughter while a loud abrupt noise prompts anger, confusion, annoyance at the very least. To hear the sound of a running stream, birds chirping, leaves rustling in the wind or a great melody just done decorate one's day with fundamental layers of life. To smell freshly roasted green chile or other favorite food being prepared, the familiar scent of a loved one, a flower and the sweetness after a rain are welcome fragrances that linger in your memory.