
Let’s start with joys, where often, but not always, we can hide the death issue. When the family or friends are together…everyone is safe..alive. Enjoy a delicious meal…I am healthy. Buy a new couch or car…I have a future. We talk in positives.
But with concerns, the negatives appear and with them, the link with the death issue. Someone made it home safely…they didn’t die in a car accident. The chemo is working… they are going to keep living. Depression is taking over…what can we do to help them?
You may be asking what this has to do with silence, solitude and simplicity. Is this what she thinks about up there alone at the cottage? Well, yes. Let me explain. In order to make sense of my life (I believe this is true for everyone), to find meaning, to step out of my ego, to find God, to … (you fill in the blank), I have to face the death issue. In fact, it comes up ‘naturally’. I can’t avoid it, although I can deny it and try to stay clear of it. (One way to do this is enter the medical world and pretend that medicine and doctors are gods.)
For me, in the silence, solitude and simplicity of the cottage, the death issue transforms into a life issue. How do I live with meaning, purpose and peace at the moment, at my particular age, with my unique situation? By facing my mortality, answers come. Not all the answers and not all the time, but hope is a constant, that is very good.