Carter’s death has got me thinking about the afterlife. For all the Christian talk about life after death (especially Christian evangelists' talk about individual existence in heaven), Jesus made it abundantly clear that while there is a kind of “life” after death, it’s not the kind of thing that we think about in order to assuage our fear of dying. I think most people think of their own consciousness, still intact, lolling around heaven – only without vice and in total happiness.
I’m a believer in the Spirit. And I believe that we all have a bit of the Spirit in us. Some less than others. And we can choose whether cultivate that part of ourselves or not. The light is within us, but we can hide it if we want.
5 comments:
Have often wondered the same thing.
When our first dog died about 7 years ago, it was said that she walked to the middle of our vast backyard, turned her head to look up at the heavens. She didn't just lift her head, but she turned it as if looking over her shoulder. As soon as she turned her head back, she laid herself on the ground, as if she had wanted to do that after a tiring chase after neighborhood cats. She died right there, and she was 14.
Another liberal Catholic parent here...I've thought the same thing as well (here from BE).
Yes, yes, yes. The light is there, always. But some cultivate and nourish it and others do not.
It's like a great light which is reflected in our lives, like light off a mirror, but which still exists when the mirror is gone.
Anyway, it's late, and I'm spacey.
Thank you for your rich and comforting perspective on things. I'm sorry about Carter's death. I also enjoyed your post about his "successor".
Hello, i've been lurking here for a while, happy to see a father's side of things.
This post interested me because my kids have been asking a lot of questions about death, and what lays beyond it, in recent days.
I was raised Catholic, but for the past 10 years I've been a practicing Pagan (eclectic, with Buddhism and Wicca, and theortical physics as influences). I'm never quite sure what to say to my kids, but I tell them the truth as I see it, in the simplest of terms.
Anyway, I think that your view of Spirit existing in everyone reminds me of the animist view of divinity being a part of nature, something that exists in all of us as well as in the world around us. Divinity that isn't separated from nature/humankind.
Sorry for the long ramble...I was just thinking...
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