JUST LIKE JULIA

My views on death:

I remember empathizing with my family during my paternal grandmother’s funeral. However, somewhere in the pomp and circumstance of a Catholic funeral, I felt laughter channeling through me during the service. It seemed so morbid and surreal. Everyone with their serious faces and crying. The pretense of the ceremony. I thought that grandma was probably happier wherever she was. She lived a long life, accomplished many things, witnessed her family become fruitful, traveled the world. Perhaps she was ready to go.

My notion is that there is more to death than just an ending. That the dream continues on. That death actually becomes more life.

Perhaps there is another realm or dimension of existence in which the physically deceased operates in full power. That because the soul is no longer contained and restrained by its physical container, it can continue to create and do whatever work it wishes to express. For example, let’s say that a grandparent feels that they can benefit the family more so in the nonphysical realm than the physical realm. It would benefit them to pass onto the nonphysical.

This topic is prompted by the news through Instagram messaging that my maternal grandmother is in the hospital from my cousin, Nathan. I deleted social media off my phone and only found out when I retrieved my laptop to check notifications. I empathize with my family: grandma has Alzheimers and dementia, so we all understood that death is inevitable.

To be honest, death is always inevitable. Nothing is ever promised. It’s like the shadow of our mortality continuously walks besides us each day and continues to watch us as we drift off into sleep. Understanding that while this physical life exists, so does our nonphysical calling. That at some point, we will cease to exist in this body.

I read Seth Speaks: The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events and feel that it has influenced my perception of death. I believe in reincarnation. There are many beliefs that your reincarnation depends on the karma or accumulated ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ that you experience or create in your reality. I don’t necessarily agree with that. Perhaps reincarnation and our focus on realities is based off of what our soul wants to experience to gain perspective on. Say I want to know what it’s like to live like an oak tree. Maybe I will dream of being an oak tree in a forest.

Maybe time is parallel. That all possibilities of our lives exist at the same time, just as our birth and death already exist. But our focused perspective is not on either of these. Instead, the present moment is our focus. But even if we’re not focusing or tuning into these events, they’re already there. There’s that saying: an ending is just another beginning. Maybe that’s what death is. Another beginning. Another dream for the dreamer to experience and live in.

Written April 2021. Grandma Li has since passed. I was unable to attend the funeral due to travel restrictions and quarantine measurements in the States.