EDITORIAL

Autumnal considerations

Editorials can be of many topics, some more immediate than others but their relevancy has a lot to do with space and time – where we are and when it is at the time. With that in mind, and given that we are smack in the middle of autumn, the season of endings, my editorial headspace has been commandeered by some sad news given recently to a family member by his doctor.  All of our family has been in turmoil, as would every family under similar circumstances. And there are many families facing this very starkness of reality every day;  it is to them as well as my own family that I record this unusual editorial below.

These are a few reflections on our final autumns, on the end of life. We’re all heading there, so sooner or later these lines might provide some understanding and, through that, comfort to all our readers . . . but let’s hope it’s later!   Our religion, upbringing, education, common sentiments, and beliefs provide an “understanding” of life’s end, too.  The simple ones here are obviously in addition to the official and established views. They are not arguments.

The mystic, Rumi, wrote a lot about what he called “the science of poverty”; poverty, meaning  our human condition in the face of the cosmos around us. From that, I wrote the following thoughts.

Kill the cow of your ego, says Rumi

So your spirit can take to life.

Your body is the unripe you, says Rumi.

Waiting to be born is a truer you.

Dying is only sugar, says Rumi.

Real sweetness you pass into.

Dying is diving, says Rumi

Into the pool of heaven.

 . . . plus a few others:

Bridges, bridges everywhere

There’s one to cross,

Takes a lifetime.

Dying makes you a miner.

Yes, go and seek

The gold!

For the real lover

Dying is little different

From staying.

The present world

is just

an engrossing game.

Your body is you,

Yes

. . . in training.

A seed in its fruit,

never released,

has no rest.

Have I died before . . .

recalling nothing,

not a shred?

The one who dies

is he or she

who has lived.

Our greatest task

Before we die?

Forgive ourselves.

Willing ourselves

to be more than human,

makes us human.

 . . . and for any season

Stop waiting

It’s well underway,

This life of yours.

Wherever you are, says Rumi,

whenever -- be the soul

of that place.