Wheel of life

David Bowie died today-it gives me pause for thought.  I have been thinking of death rather frequently lately-why? For a number of reasons. As I get older I realize that the spiritual life is really the life and the material life is but the mirror image; an illusion. Whether you are an icon or simply a pauper death comes like a thief in the night-there is no escape. One cannot buy or negotiate the way out-it is the lot of man.

The strange thing about being human is that one does not actually feel one`s age-we gaze in the mirror and we suddenly see a stranger staring back-it is rather a frightening realization as one faces one`s own mortality and the questions that accompanies that thought. We sweat and stress throughout our lives- dog eat dog trying to get ahead, often missing the present entirely, yet time ticks down second by second and suddenly we realize that we are at 11.59-one minute before midnight,  and we would give anything to rewind that clock, for we have squandered so much time and we feel that we have betrayed ourselves. We did, and we do things we regret terribly. We allow love to escape, we live in the future and lament about the past while the present is sailing by. Sad- so sad is the fate of the human being.

Everything dies that once lived- it all transforms into something else. Perhaps living on, perhaps not- but die it must.We exit this life stage naked, without anything, as we have entered it- irrespective of how much we have in the bank.

Looking back, I believe for all of us it all seems such a short time that we were children-yet often it is many decades- and what have we done? What have we achieved? What are we taking with us? -Only the memories and the love in our hearts for the living whom we have loved- that has touched our heart and soul, be that human or animal or beauty in various forms.

In a way death  gives me solace, knowing that everything that is now living or has lived has or shall pass through the same process as I someday will- so, there should not be sadness, grief or tears. As for the spiritual life - well at times I am certain at times I am not as to where it shall lead; but for the time being I console myself with the thought, with the faith, with the hope that there is a God who knows what  He is actually doing-so for now I leave it all in His holy hand.

So onward do I march in gratefulness, gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, kindness and above all love- and try and rack up credit as much as I can in the spiritual department for only living by those ideals is there a possibility of escaping the wheel of life-perhaps? A big perhaps!