12-29-2009, 07:26 PM
i'm going to apologise before i start because i think this post is going to become a stream of thoughts rather than a question or a problem seeking an answer, but i'd be interested in hearing other people's views
generally i'm wondering what your response is to the death or terminal decline of loved ones?
over the past few years my grandparents and their siblings have been reaching the end of their incarnations, lots of people passing on, lots of funerals etc. now the people who i have felt closest to i have felt a perfection about their physical death. my mum's father, so many wonderful things happened in the months leading up to his death, which was quick, as he would have wanted it. i felt joy at his passing, not saddness.
my mum's auntie, who is very dear to her, was diagnosed with a terminal cancer last week, the day before christmas eve, very advanced, affecting many organs although she is broadly symptom free at the moment and i know that when her pain comes it will be managed well. such news obviously cast a shaddow across christmas for most people in my family but again i feel joy. her diagnosis also has a sense of perfection, in her older years she has seized life and truly lived it, and her goodbye, likely to be months rather than weeks, gives her family the opportunity to demonstrate their love and appreciation of her, a very important, positive thing for all involved.
however to see the perfection in a loved ones demise seems a very strange thing. not that i am saying such things.
it saddened me that my auntie, so dedicated to catholicism throughout her life with a divinity degree and having sacrificed a marriage and possible children because her sweetheart was a divorcee, has the church but seems not to have faith. and yet i, being someone who has in her view rejected faith by not participating in the church, have such a sense of knowingness of the perfection of her path and i truly feel excited for her, and yet this is something i cannot really express.
i feel as though i have taken a step back from my family at this time, i can't really engage with the emotional turmoil they are feeling and yet i have such empathy and understanding of why they are feeling as they do. it seems like such a deeply sad thing to reach the end of a life devoted to a religion and then to find that you only have the religion, not the faith. that is the real saddness for me.
generally i'm wondering what your response is to the death or terminal decline of loved ones?
over the past few years my grandparents and their siblings have been reaching the end of their incarnations, lots of people passing on, lots of funerals etc. now the people who i have felt closest to i have felt a perfection about their physical death. my mum's father, so many wonderful things happened in the months leading up to his death, which was quick, as he would have wanted it. i felt joy at his passing, not saddness.
my mum's auntie, who is very dear to her, was diagnosed with a terminal cancer last week, the day before christmas eve, very advanced, affecting many organs although she is broadly symptom free at the moment and i know that when her pain comes it will be managed well. such news obviously cast a shaddow across christmas for most people in my family but again i feel joy. her diagnosis also has a sense of perfection, in her older years she has seized life and truly lived it, and her goodbye, likely to be months rather than weeks, gives her family the opportunity to demonstrate their love and appreciation of her, a very important, positive thing for all involved.
however to see the perfection in a loved ones demise seems a very strange thing. not that i am saying such things.
it saddened me that my auntie, so dedicated to catholicism throughout her life with a divinity degree and having sacrificed a marriage and possible children because her sweetheart was a divorcee, has the church but seems not to have faith. and yet i, being someone who has in her view rejected faith by not participating in the church, have such a sense of knowingness of the perfection of her path and i truly feel excited for her, and yet this is something i cannot really express.
i feel as though i have taken a step back from my family at this time, i can't really engage with the emotional turmoil they are feeling and yet i have such empathy and understanding of why they are feeling as they do. it seems like such a deeply sad thing to reach the end of a life devoted to a religion and then to find that you only have the religion, not the faith. that is the real saddness for me.