Moments of mourning

Dear  everyone,  

I’d  like  for  a  moment  to  get off the track  from  the usual  opinion  write up and  focus  some attention to “moments  of mourning”   as  I  have  entitled this  article.

Quite  sad  to  hear  the death  of  a  friend,  relative of friends,  and  moreover if  we talk about your own  relative  for that matter.  In the last  7 years  I’ve  experienced how  death had “visited” my  own  family,  two of my  beloved brothers-in-law  passed away a year  after another,  but, the big  blow  came  when  my  father  died in August 2008  and  my  mother “followed”  in  October 2008.  Sad, I  may  put  it,  very  sad… a month  ago,  a  friend  of mine  died  here in Madrid,  then days  back,  the  mother of  a friend  back in the Philippines  died  as well,  and just over  three days,  the brother  of my same  friend  passed away as  well.  The  mourning  has  yet to pass when I received  a  phone  call  yesterday evening  from  my  sister back in the Philippines  to break  me  the  news  that my brother-in-law,  Joselito Laxa,  succumbed  beyond his physical  life fighting  against   an  illness.

Let me  quote  what  Steve Jobs  said  before  his  death:  

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

True  enough,  every beginning  has its ending and  at  times  it  is very  difficult  to assimilate  that reality,  to comprehend  the  real  meaning  of  Life,  but,  death  has  to be accepted  that  way  it should be  accepted.  Because  no one  can  really  escape from  it.  It is a  painful  truth,  but  the  road we  trek  when  alive,  is  just  as  painful. Death  could  be the  solution  to someone’s  pains  and sufferings,  to the misery  and anguish  of  one’s  life and once  on the “other  side”,  be comforted  and renewed – devoid  of  suffering and grief when  living. 

As  it  has  been  said  “death is the  end of  a  new  beginning”.  And  I  quote  another saying: “For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity. ~William Penn”.   Indeed,  we  should  be  “happy”  for those  who  have  passed  into   the threshold of  life  to  begin  another  for  eternity.   Our  mournings  are  righteous,  our grief  are virtues, life  itself  can  be  cruel  and  at  times you plead  for  “death”  to resolve  the griefs you’ve  been afflicted with.  But  life  should  continue.  It  should be nourished  no  matter  how difficult  it  may seem.   

To conclude,  allow  me to  give  a  quote  about  life:  “Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity. ~Seneca”. 

We  pray  for the  souls  of  our parted loved  ones.   May  the  good  Lord  keep them and nourish them  in  eternity….Eric