Recently I was fortunate enough to spend a few weeks
in Tasmania with my beautiful husband and a few old friends. Like most visitors
to Tasmania we favoured the natural environment and spent several days
exploring some of Tassie’s pristine forests. It was after one such visit that
these thought came to me …….
What is this thing we call death? Is there even such a
thing? Or have we been duped into believing in ‘death’ because of the fear and
lack of faith in others? Every day we confront ‘death’ in some way. Most days we are so detuned from ‘death’ that
we don’t even notice it until it touches us personally in a deep and
unavoidable way.
Our cat catches a mouse and tortures it before killing
it to eat. Dead animals litter the shoulders of our highways, victims of this
fast-paced life we live. A bug lands on
our skin and we swipe at it intent on killing it. The wood we use in our fireplaces
was once a vibrant living tree providing shelter and possibly food for many
creatures.
But is there really such a thing as death? Or is death
simply a means of transformation, an opportunity for growth in a different
direction?
Whilst we were exploring the many beautiful natural
wonders of Tasmania I noticed that everywhere we went life was abundant and
beautiful. In the Franklin-Gordon
Wilderness Area we came across the remains of an ancient Huon pine. Some would
say that this tree was ‘dead’. It certainly wasn’t living in the form that most
would identify as a Huon pine. And yet the remains of this magnificent old tree
– hundreds of years old – was bursting with life. Over 160 species of trees and plants have now
been identified as emerging and thriving in the remnants of what once was an
ancient giant of the forest.
So is this tree dead? Or has it simply been
transformed into something new? It is
certainly providing a fertile bed for a vibrant and diverse colony of
life. The evidence is there for all to
see. So is this tree ‘dead’?
And what about those unfortunate animals which have
fallen prey to our fast paced lifestyle and become road kill? Their remains are
now transformed into food for the many scavengers which are drawn to the
freshly killed carcasses. Without these scavengers we would by now be buried
beneath the burden of our own waste, our own carelessness.
But the forest provides the clearest example of the
cycles of life, of ‘death’ and rebirth. A tree fallen in a wild storm crashes
to the forest floor where it begins the process of rebirth. It is no longer the
magnificent tree that it once was as it reached for the warmth of the
sunlight. It has now reached its lowest
point and it slowly begins its transformation into something else, something
potentially more beautiful, lighter, and more vibrant.
As time passes this ‘dead’ tree becomes host to a
multitude of living organisms – fungi, lichen, moss, insects, grubs, each one
working in tandem with the others to transform the tree into something more
beautiful than it was before. Eventually this fallen tree will support the
continuation of growth and life of all around it. So has the tree really died or is it simply
being transformed?
We are generally afraid of death because change makes
us feel uncomfortable. Think of a time
in your life when you were forced to change? A job redundancy, marriage, the
arrival of children, moving out of home, illness, travel to a foreign country
and so on. How did that feel? And did you emerge from this changed circumstance
(whatever it might have been) exactly the same as before or had you changed in
some way? Change makes us feel
uncomfortable but it almost always leads to growth if we let it. For most this
growth will be in a positive direction but some get stuck in old patterns and
growth either stops or reverses in a negative direction. The choice is up to
the individual.
Change is all around us. It is the one constant thing in this
world. Every day every one of us
witnesses dozens of small changes – from the way we have brushed our hair, the
clothes we wear, the direction of the breeze, the ever changing skyscape. Change is all around us. Everyday. And yet
when it comes to the biggest change of all, ‘death’, we become frozen. Often
paralysed by fear of the unknown. But
isn’t God trying to show us through our natural environment that there is no
such thing as ‘death’?
In order for us to understand this concept we must be
able to acknowledge that we are not who we think we are. We are not our physical body. We are a soul having a physical experience.
Many religious philosophies teach this. And yet if we truly believed this we
would also have to acknowledge that the ‘death’ of the physical body simply
marks a transition to a lighter and more ethereal existence. Of course, the big problem with acknowledging
this is that the ‘death’ of the physical body necessitates change. The person
whose physical body has decayed and ‘died’ must get used to residing in a lighter
form. And unless they were particularly tuned to this more ethereal existence
prior to their ‘death’ they will have difficulty communicating with those left
behind, especially if their loved ones have not yet developed the ability to
communicate across the great divide. The person who has ‘died’ now has an
opportunity to learn and grow in a different direction and perhaps be
transformed into something with far greater potential that previously imagined.
Perhaps for us ‘death’ is like the tree which has
fallen in the forest. We have now
reached our lowest point and must learn to surrender to the process, to the
truth of the universe around us, in order to learn and grow and eventually
transform into something potentially much grander and greater than we ever
would have imagined possible. Like that grand old Huon pine in the forests of
Tasmania, we all have the opportunity to allow ‘death’ to transform us into
something greater that we ever thought we could be. But to do this we must be
willing to surrender everything we thought we knew about ourselves. And we must
be willing to learn to see ourselves through God’s eyes, will all of our
potential and promise. Then we must be willing to let go and let God show us
the way forward. And who knows where he
will lead us? And we can begin this process long before the ‘death’ of the
physical body.
Death is not the end.
It is simply a new beginning.
Nature shows us this every day.
All around us. We just need to
wake up and pay attention.
With the end of the year fast approaching perhaps now is an appropriate time to reflect upon our own feelings about 'death' and ask ourselves "What 'death' am I wanting to face before the new year begins? What 'death' must I face in order for new opportunities to bloom and thrive in the coming year?"
