Earth's Toiling Ended

 i've often said that i plan to live for at least 125 years.  my health has always been good.  my heart is strong, i don't need knee or hip replacements, i have few of the aches and pains associated with aging.  here lately, though, i can tell that my body is aging.  i don't have as much energy as i used to have.  my back hurts if i overdo physical activity, and the pain is quite severe unless i am consistent in doing the flexibility and resistance exercises that my physical therapist prescribed for me.  my digestive system gives me some trouble, and, when i eat certain types of food, i pay the consequences.  routine tests show that one of my major organs is not functioning optimally, and one of these days it may fail altogether.  in short, this body that has held up so well for almost seventy-four years is not what it once was.

i am grateful that my body has gotten me this far with few malfunctions.  my immune system is strong, and i seldom catch the common viruses and infections that go around.  even though i feel the effects of the years that are behind me, i am far more active than most people my age.  that being said, i must face the fact that the end of my life is much nearer that i would wish it to be and must be prepared for it.  i have to give some thought to getting my affairs in order so that my family members who survive me are not burdened with sorting them out after i'm gone.  most of all, i have to accept the fact that i won't live forever and come to terms with my own mortality.

we don't want to think about end-of-life matters but i am certain that looking ahead to the inevitable is in our own best interests.  we need to come to terms with our common end, no matter when or how it comes.  i believe that death is a door to a new existence, whether that new life is in some other reality or in being reincarnated in a new body to try once more to discover the truths of human existence.  that belief gives me some comfort, but i won't lay down this life without fighting to sustain it.  my life has, on the whole, been a happy one, and it continues to be so.  i want it to go on forever, even though my body tells me that it can't.  it does me no good to pretend that death won't come to me as it has for those who have gone before me, and so i meditate on the end of my life from time to time.

may we each face the inevitably of our demise.  may we be at peace with our common end and rejoice in the time we've been given, in our "precious human life," glad each day that we've "been fortunate to have awakened."  may we not waste the time we have as we seek to grow each day.  may we be grateful that our bodies have carried us this far and care for them so that they may function as long as possible while accepting that they will ultimately fail us.  may we be well and filled with lovingkindness and compassion.  shalom.