Living and Dying in Time

The sanctuary of Self is timeless. Marbe bust, Italian, 19th. century

Just as we cannot talk of old age before living it – it’s too early – we cannot talk of
death before dying it – it’s too late! This much can be said in advance of both: we will age and die as we lived, just as in traveling, the next village will be the same
as the last one we passed through, if only our body/mind was engaged. So it must be– more of the same. More of the same baggage – Samsonite or Gucci – carried into our twilight whether we’re rich or poor.

But let’s suppose that there are two kinds of life we can live: the material life or
the spiritual one. In fact, we cannot live a life that is not composed, in some measure, of both. That’s because we are both! And it is in Time that we may discover what life is, and that the living of it is not of our making, only the experiencing of it. Even there, the experiences we have will be determined by our childhood environmental and cultural conditioning. So we will live the life we think is “me” and “mine”.

Fortunately for some, that life gets interrupted by an unwelcome mercy! That’s when good old, hard Reality collides mightily with our personal illusions about how we think things should be. That’s when we find out our little ship is running against the wind and waves of life as it is. Several “course corrections” are then demanded! Ones that leave us bloodied and battered on the rocks of the harbor from which we originally set sail!
The fog lifts, the sun rises, life goes on. We are again, finally, at home in the still waters of being.
And Time and Death has finally, truly “ lost its’ dominion.”

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