"Our final bliss, perfectly passionate, perfectly kind:
It is our first love, long since left behind."
___Ruth Pitter, "Good Enthroned"
The surprise, delight or astonishment that passes over the face of the dying as they glimpse what lies beyond is frequently remarked upon by those who attend a deathbed. Those who have kept vigil feel a sense of shared privilege when they observe this, a feeling of exaltation that rises up above sorrow, weariness, and bereavement. What has happened here? At the very verge of consciousness, the dying see briefly beyond the horizon that lies between life and death. What they recognize there is not a barrenness or an absence of everything, rather, it is more life, a recognition of whatever they once thought lost to them forever. That which they relinquished or neglected in years past, as well as the very potential of the soul, is rediscovered in an instant.
The wise treat death as a friend who will restore them, not only in body, but also in spirit, to everyone and everything they have ever loved. Living with death as a friend, as a daily companion, is not a morbid practice. It helps to reconnect us with our beginnings, when our hopes and potential were still strongly flowing; it casts aside fear and strengthens the life that we still enjoy. If we substitute the image of our soul's beloved for the popular image of death, we will immeasurably help ourselves. Death is the soul's friend, the turner of the key, who liberates us to inhabit new freedoms and who reintroduces us to old loves so that we can find our way back to the primal beginnings our soul's story.
"Consider what hopes you have for your own death, even though hopes is not a word you would normally apply to dying. If you have a strong fear of death, ask help of your soul's beloved - your deepest spiritual source of assistance and support - in redefining your view and creating a more confident attitude."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
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