Contemplative

I’ve been somewhat contemplative these past couple of days.  Went to a funeral for a friend’s father on Sunday not long after hearing the news of Kobe Bryant and later his daughter, as well as the other 7 people that lost their lives in the horrible crash.  I can’t begin to imagine what the families are going through.  One family lost mother, father and daughter and it sounds like there are other children that are now left without parents.  Not sure how you go on after something like that.

As I sat at the funeral, I looked around and listened to the minister and the eulogies and thought about the impermanence of life.  There is a traditional passage that is read at many Buddhist funerals called “The Letter on the White Ashes.”  One line states “Thus our bodies may be radiant with health in the morning, but by evening they may be white ashes.”  I have heard this passage many times over the years, but on this day, it hit me much more profoundly than ever before.  Probably because, Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and the other seven people on that helicopter were likely all in good health when they started that journey but in the blink of an eye, their lives were over.

I thought of many things in my life, especially these past 4-5 years.  I had some health issues that required some significant surgeries and to a certain extent may have been life threatening.  I thought of my father and brother-in-law who both passed a little more than 2 years ago and while neither were radiant with health at the time, it is somewhat surreal to think that you are alive one moment and gone the next.

I’m not sure what this all means and I guess dealing with the loss of loved ones, friends, acquaintances and even those we may have never met but have admired from afar, is something we all have to figure out for ourselves.

All I can say is hold those you love close and never let an opportunity to express your feelings to them pass you by for by evening, there may only be “White Ashes.”  Live your life so that when your time comes, you can look in the mirror and know that you did all you could to improve the lives of those you love.