Today is Palm Sunday. It is a warm and breezy sunny day in Albuquerque, so I have the balcony doors open and the sun is streaming in. As I write this, I can hear the chimes of the Presbyterian Church a few blocks east, tolling a familiar hymn, the notes carried on the wind.
Yesterday I received a message from Eliza, informing me that our mutual friend, David Donaldson, had passed away after a brief hospice stay at Lovelace Medical Center.
David was my first new friend here in Albuquerque when Patricia and I moved here about two years ago. David introduced me to the Albuquerque Press Club, which is how I came to know Eliza and her partner, Arthur. Over these past two years David and I had our share of drinks together, and I learned to appreciate the ritual of cocktails from him. I will miss him a lot.
I am reminded of a song lyric from the movie “Waking Ned Devine” when I think of David now…
Fill to me the parting glass
And drink a health whate’re befalls
And gently rise and softly call
Goodnight and joy be to you all.
Since it fell into my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all.
I cannot imagine David not being somewhere, or going somewhere, and experiencing something, right now. What happens beyond death is the ultimate unknowable question. I cannot believe that the essence of life ends at death. I do not expect to cease from experiencing, after my own death. Of course I may be surprised.
Actually, here’s the most interesting thing about this ultimate question of what lies beyond death… We will all know it’s answer, in mind and body, on our own, one by one, when we die. Until then, I view this life as spirit-driven, experienced by spirit, and that death causes no harm to spirit. But what lies beyond, I have not a clue.
Comments? Death and Beyond in the public discussion forum.
Recent Comments