We are adamant creatures; no matter how good, we are resistant to change. It takes a shock to make us see our lives afresh, and at some point, we all confront the fact that each of us is “fastened to a dying animal” ( William Butler Yeats)
We deal best with loss by accepting the fact that we will one day lose everything. When we learn to fall, we learn that only by letting go of all that we find most precious can we find the most profound freedom. In the act of letting go of our lives, we return more fully to them.
To accept death is to live with a profound sense of freedom. The freedom, first, from attachment to the things of this life that do not really matter: achievements, material possessions, and even our own bodies. Acceptance brings the freedom to act according to our highest nature.
Only when we accept our present condition can we set aside fear and discover the love and compassion that are our highest human endowments. Out of our compassion, we deal justly with those about us. Not just on good days, not just when it is convenient, but everywhere and at all times we are free to act according to that which is highest in us. Then, we find peace.
1 Corinthians 15:51, 53 “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!... For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.”
