Celebrating Death

Funerals are not high on my list of things to attend. After my father's funeral, when I was eleven, I think I decided they were something to be avoided.

Recently however, I couldn't avoid one. I wanted to support a friend in need. Her husband, after two of their three children had ended their own lives, decided he couldn't stand the pain any longer and ended his life.

The mortuary was packed to capacity. Speakers spoke of this man's "deamons" and hardships primarily and added a few stories of a lighter note. I left the service feeling less than inspired. I felt cheated in truth. I felt once again, a gathering of a couple of hundred souls disbanded, leaving no more connected than when they entered the dreary building cloaked in pain and suffering.

Had I been asked to speak (and would have the composure to get through a talk) I would have involved the audience. I would have asked them what this man's life, however he lived it, taught them about their life. "What are your addictions?" I would have asked. "When do you want to check out of the game of life?" "How are you accountable for this soul's decision to leave?" If we can't learn about how we are living our life from another's passing then we miss a valuable opportunity. I would have then had the audience stand, hug their neighbor and reach up to the heavens and sing something like Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven" or "The Sound of Music" or something to connect us at the heart!

Whether we choose to exit this third dimensional reality on our own accord, or let disease or degeneration be the more acceptable cause, death is but another event in a day that we have a choice in how we respond to it. Is it something to mourn or is it something to celebrate. Death is primarily mourned because we don't live each day as whole, responsible, loving beings able to move into the next day undaunted by a loved one's passing. Death is usually mourned because of how low our expectations of ourselves have been. How little we loved. How little we grew our light with the soul who made their exit.

My funeral will be fun. My funeral will be a celebration of all my screwups, successes, friends, family and journey to the next grade in The School of Cosmic Enlightenment. My funeral will be filled with love and light because I will have made an effort to require myself and those in my world to live from that higher place, not from disconnection, fear and scarcity. So if you want to come to a fun funeral come into my world and let me come into yours.

Oh and one other thing...if you die before me, don't expect me to come unless it's a party!