Death and dying has been much on my mind throughout the creation of this series. After much contemplation and a good deal of personal experience, what I think I understand about death and dying is this, life does not simply burst into being like a light switch being flipped suddenly on. It is a slow process of awakening into being. As with all things in Nature, there is a balance to this, death. Death is not an abrupt ending that happens in an instant like the sudden flipping off of a light switch. It is also a slow process, a process of release.
Just as we struggle to awaken into life, most of us will also struggle to release ourselves from life. Some will struggle against this release and some will struggle to achieve release. I have held the hands of many people as they moved through this final struggle and I have offered whatever strength, love and support I have had to give. I have given permission to those who struggled to hang on in the face of pain and fear to let go and accept release; some fought to hang on and some fought to let go. What I have learned from these experiences is that there can be a beauty and a grace in the struggle and in the release. The spirit, strength and inner beauty flares up and reveals itself in that last struggle and in that final moment of release. If we are looking and attentive, we will perceive these things. There is so much loss and sorrow surrounding death that most of us never perceive any beauty or grace in this struggle only pain, sorrow and anger. Most of us don't see death as a part of life but rather as the opposite of life. Indeed, death is a part of life it is the final moment of life and it can be filled with beauty, strength and grace.