In Limbo...Thoughts On Life, Death & Resurrection

Something i've learned over the years: you can't hurry resurrection. When something or someone dies there must be time for grieving, for simply being in whatever emotional morass occurs, before the hope of rebirth, new life, can begin to emerge... tentatively, uncertainly at first, before its hope & promise can come into full bloom. It is a time to, in the words of T.S. Eliot, "Wait without hope/For hope would be hope for the wrong thing."

For in the space, in the silence, in the often-unwelcome peace is the time for preparation, for entry into newness. Life has changed... nothing will ever be the same...loss begins, begins to heal...takes the first tentative baby steps toward what awaits- that waiting-to-be-birthed unknown. Space, silence, solitude, as the whole world slowly rearranges itself around you...letting yourself be exactly where you are, as you are...making room for what is to come.

The reality is that death stands just outside the boundaries of every present moment...our constant, unseen companion. Nothing is permanent; nothing is secure and forever...not even death. And the many "deaths" which happen in life can open you to- at last- celebrate the gift of newness, change, rebirth, unwanted as it may be in this moment.

For in the change lies the challenge...newness knocking at the door of the heart, seeking entrance...welcome...residence. Change unsettles us, taking us to places we never planned to be. "Change teaches us that life is an exercise of melting into eternity."
-so writes my favorite nun. It frees us from the predictable, as unsettling as that may be.

Death has changed, continues to change the landscape of the present, of the future, opening up the possibiity of seeing things we often miss giving us new eyes & renewed values, and re-shaping priorities. It shrinks worry, troubles, to size...puts them into perspective. We can see clearly now, the darkness of death broken by the light of new life preparing to happen: growth, possibility... resurrection...and nothing will ever be the same again. Alleluia! Thanks be to God!