When the Rain Falls

I have been telling myself for the past few days that I need to write in my blog so here I am again.

I have not posted much on my blog lately as I have wanted to keep details of my life that involved others off of my blog and I cannot do that if I actually write!  LOLs...

I have recently experienced a huge loss in my life, my mother, and have been processing that loss and I have been busy with dealing with that loss.  My mum was a wonderful mother and a lovely human being.  We had a few months to deal with the news that she was dying but at that moment when the news of her passing came it still came as a huge loss.  Her memorial service was a lovely celebration of all that she had been in life and all that she would continue to be in our recollections, photos and memories of her.  Going through the experience of my mother's illness and her death was a purifying experience, putting all of the mundane and minutiae into sharp contrast with what was important to me.  To focus on family, home and relationships with even more vigour, to fill my life with abundance and live every moment.  To squeeze every last drop out of the fruit of my life.

The study of Stoic philosophy and its practice in my daily life has made a huge difference in my coming to terms with her loss.  When I compare my reactions to the loss of my father before studying Stoicism, I am amazed by the contrast.  I know that death is a reality of life, we cannot have one without the other.  Although I will miss her awfully, I know that my mother has completed the cycle of life and lived her life and loved her family and friends fully.  I am encouraged to live my life even more every day by her example.  We who are left behind to remember her do well to honour her memory every day by living with joy and embracing the world with happiness and wonder.

I now move forward into the world as an orphan yet not alone.  I am surrounded by the love of those who came before and those who are yet still my companions in this life.  I will live more fully and more boldly, having a greater appreciation for each moment as it has been refined under the magnifying glass of terminal illness and death.  I move forward with the motto of Carpe Diem, to seize the day, to savour the moments before they slip away and are lost to the stream of time. To take each moment as a gift, each sunrise as a promise, each moonrise as a benediction, to live.