Solace

Given that each moment of our life is different from the one before, you’d think that we would become accustomed to the constant rhythm of letting go of what is and welcoming what is to come that makes up human existence. Yet the death of one of our companions always seems to be so shocking and unexpected, especially when it happens with little or no warning. At such times, when we experience the loss and suffering that touches every life, we seek solace.

In his book Consolations, David Whyte says,

Solace is found in allowing the body’s innate wisdom to come to the fore, the part of us that already knows it is mortal and must take its leave like everything else, and leading us, when the mind cannot bear what it is seeing or hearing, to the birdsong in the tree above our heads, even as we are being told of a death, each note an essence of morning and of mourning; of the current of a life moving on, but somehow, also, and most beautifully, carrying, bearing, and even celebrating the life we have just lost.”

One way to carry, bear, celebrate, and honor the life of a person we have just lost is to live fiercely while we ourselves still have breath—to cherish our precious, limited time and live as much as possible in a state of gratitude. As Whyte notes, “Solace is a direct seeing and participation; a celebration of the beautiful coming and going, appearance and disappearance of which we have always been a part.” Followers of Jesus know that when we seemingly disappear at death, life does not end but continues in a new form beyond our imagining. Thus in the midst of our grief, we also celebrate the new life that we cannot see but trust awaits us because of the one who said, “I am going to prepare a place for you…so that where I am you also may be.”