On Death and Dying

I recently read an article about children and their reaction to death and dying.  The little boy in the article, Sam had a beautiful way of dealing with his grandfather's illness and death.  It was a wonderfully written article that can be read here.


I've always thought that children know more about life and death than adults do.  Technically, I suppose they are closer to life as they were born quite a bit more recently than adults. Maybe they do hold knowledge that adults have forgotten.  Perhaps the truth of life is held by children.  Adults could learn volumes by watching children process information – without all of the filters that we've adopted over our life experience.

 Each of us hold our own beliefs about heaven and the afterlife.  But no one alive truly, logically knows.  We each have faith as to what we believe may be.  Some people believe in a heaven in the sky, the pearly white gates.  Some people believe in reincarnation.  Some people believe there is nothing after death, that we simply no longer exist.  I'm sure that there are many other widely held beliefs that I'm leaving out.  But the point is that each belief is different from the next.   And each belief creates our living map of our world; what we choose to believe about life after death affects how we live our life.

This little boy, in the article, held the theory that when loved ones die that we are not actually separated from them.  He chose to believe that our loved one's speak to us after death, if we are truly listening.  He chose to stay with his grandfather through his illness, when adults and others couldn't.  He didn't choose to withdrawal from Pa.  I think that because he believed that even after death, that Pa wouldn't leave him he was able to continue to love without limits.

What if, as adults, we loved without limits?