Well, let me tell ya, life and death, they’re all mixed up together, you know? Like them fancy folks say, “in life we are in the midst of death”. Don’t rightly know what all them big words mean, but I reckon it’s like this: we’re livin’ and dyin’ all at the same time.
Think about it. Every day, we’re a little bit older, a little bit closer to the end. It ain’t somethin’ to be scared of, though. It’s just the way things are. Like that fella said, we’re dyin’ every day, every second that passes is gone forever. We’re killin’ time, but time’s killin’ us right back, slow and steady.
- We’re born, we grow up, we work hard, maybe raise a family.
- Then we get old, our bodies start to wear out, and eventually, we die.
It’s the same for everythin’. Them crops in the field, they grow tall and strong, then they wither and die. Them animals in the barnyard, they’re born, they live their lives, and then they’re gone. It’s just nature’s way, see? Nothin’ lasts forever, no matter how much we might want it to.
But here’s the thing, even when things are dyin’, there’s still life. When them crops die, they go back into the earth and help new crops grow. When them animals die, they nourish the ground. It’s like a big circle, life and death, always goin’ ’round and ’round.
“In the midst of life, we are in death”, that’s what they say. And I guess it’s true. But I also think it works the other way around. In the midst of death, there’s life, too. Think about it. When someone we love dies, they ain’t really gone, are they? They live on in our memories, in the stories we tell about them, in the lessons they taught us.
And ain’t that a kind of life, too? It ain’t the same as breathin’ and walkin’ around, but it’s real just the same. It’s the love we shared, the laughter we had, the things we did together. That stuff stays with us, even after they’re gone. It’s like them old quilts I make. Them pieces of cloth, they might be old and worn, but when I sew ‘em together, they make somethin’ new and beautiful. Somethin’ that lasts.
So, I reckon we gotta learn to live with both life and death. We gotta appreciate the good times when we have ’em, and we gotta accept that the bad times are gonna come, too. And we gotta remember that even when things seem dark and hopeless, there’s always a little bit of light somewhere. There’s always a little bit of life in the midst of death.
We can’t stop death, no matter how hard we try. But we can choose how we live. We can choose to be kind, to be generous, to be grateful for what we have. We can choose to love each other, to support each other, to make the world a little bit better place while we’re here. Cause that’s what really matters in the end, ain’t it? Not how long we live, but how we live.
And when it’s my time to go, I hope folks will remember me kindly. I hope they’ll remember the good things I did, and maybe forget the bad ones. I hope they’ll know I did the best I could with what I had. And I hope they’ll find some comfort knowin’ that even though I’m gone, a little bit of me will live on in their hearts.
So yeah, “in life we are in the midst of death”. But don’t let that scare ya. Just live your life the best you can, love the people around you, and don’t take nothin’ for granted. Cause that’s all any of us can do, really.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough. Maybe that’s what it’s all about. Living and loving and making the most of the time we’ve got, right here in the middle of it all. Between the start and the finish. Between the hello and the goodbye. Between life and death. That’s where we are. That’s where we belong.
