On the Loss of My Parents – 01
[Exploring Life] In the Presence of Death: Within a span of four months both of my parents passed away. My mother was first to die on September 22, 2010 just four days short of her 91st birthday. My father died on January 7, 2011 approximately one month before his 93rd birthday. The length of their lives allowed them to forge a deep and close bond with their two children, myself and my sister, as well as their grandchildren and friends. They both outlived most everyone in their generation and many of their younger friends as well. In a sense, they were the last of an era to pass away.
Death is one of the experiences in life that is utterly irrevocable. Though we do things in our lives that we may try to repair, alter, or undo, death does not lend itself to our influence. Death is our most trusted adviser; death is the essence of our fear. The death of our parents is a point of no return in life that most of us will face, unless the parents experience the horror of outliving their own children. It has become clear to me that death is in fact the single most important experience in life, that is, building a healthy relationship with death is essential to embracing life. Thus, it is obvious to say, death is the experience we fear the most and simultaneously the experience that has the most to offer us. Over the next few posts I will explore death in the light of my parents recent passing for the world in order to try and comprehend the mercurial thoughts and feelings that stir within. In this first post I will recall the experiences leading toward the deaths of my mother and father.
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[Exploring Life] Aristotle posed the question, How should a human being lead his life? It is a universal question that touches every human life on the planet. For some, the question visits us only once in a while; for other, it relentlessly pursues our attention and demands intimacy. In 