Day 5 360 to go!

So, I started on Monday the 11th and today is Friday the 14th and I am still excited to write everyday. Wonder what I will be saying 300 days from now?

Today I was having a conversation with a man who's father is dying. I was asking if they, his family, had everything they needed. He assured me they did and then he said "we are ready". Indicating they were ready for him to die, and my thought was you live in the stress of what is happening, knowing your loved one is actively dying and at some point say to yourself and others "ready". It is almost like a bracing for what is coming. Yet you really have no idea what is coming. With every death you will have a different experience.

When my grandmother died we had a party. She lived to be 89years old and had had a remarkable life. We were happy she no longer had to live in a bed or wheelchair when her life had been so active. My grandmother's idea of a bad girl was to have a gimlet and tell an off color joke, of course she would start laughing so hard you could hardly get the punchline. So, after the funeral we went to my mother's home, raised a glass to grannie and told her favorite dirty jokes. We all loved her and loved honoring her in a way she would have loved.

I also noticed today that death is so much like birth. We think we are prepared yet we have no idea what we are prepared for. As in death each birth is different. You can buy all of the equipment and prepare for the event but you really have no idea what it will be until you experience it. For me with the birth of my first son I was scared, thrilled, and stressed for months, probably years, after he was born. I never imagined how much I would love him. Death has proved to be similar in as much as every person in my life who has died has touched me in a different way. Every death an experience not expected. Every death a lesson in love.