Death Brings Inspiration to Life
9/11/2023: The day my Grandfather passed away
Today I bear witness to a death in the family: the passing of my grandfather. We all knew it was only a matter of time before he’d exhale his last breath, but it didn’t lessen the blow any. However, knowing he’s no longer suffering does ease the pain and I do truly believe he’s in a better place now - more to come on afterlife in later posts.
What I find most interesting is that this week has been particularly easy for me to slip into my poet self. That even though a death has occurred, I feel a closer connection to GOD and a special call to create. For example, as I was walking alone in my grandparents yard, reminiscing, I looked up to the trees and thought “these are the trees, this is the sky, this is the garden that has watched and grown together with my grandpa for so many years”. I then pondered deeply on the birds he fed daily, the shoes he owned and wore that were tucked neatly in the closet, the sweet red wine he loved so much, his many hats hanging in the entry way, and the way he lived his unique life. I thought: how interesting, that in the midst of my mourning, here I am breathing a new life of inspiration from my lungs, something I’d been yearning for for some time.
When there’s a death, we finally allow ourselves to slow down and not take a moment for granted, because we’re ever more aware of the universal truth that life here in this body is finite.
Later this day, I recalled back to the many other times I’ve experienced death in my life and in return, noticed the spirit of inspiration flowing through me. Be that, death of an ego - this one happened for me when I was in college and realized I no longer wanted to be an extremely social partier anymore, but that I wanted to teach and practice yoga as much and as often as possible. This led me to sign up and take my first 200-hour YTT in Costa Rica at the wise age of 18, which in return filled me with tons of yoga business inspirations, spiritual poems, spontaneous adventures, creative inventions, and unique opportunities.
Or, perhaps it be the death of a relationship. For me, this was when I broke up with one of the loves of my life after a tumultuous two-year relationship together. But suddenly, when it was actually over, I found myself writing songs and poems as fluidly as water pours from an Italian fountain. It. Never. Stops. Flowing.
Or maybe, for you, it’s been any death in general; any type, any kind, of any thing that once was an integral part of your life but then ceased to exist. What death have you experienced in your life that brought you a fresh breath of inspiration?
