Yesterday I heard some bad news from a good friend of mine. Last week his father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and that it had already spread to his liver and kidneys. My friend was planning on flying back home this Friday, but he decided to take last night's flight home instead. I don't think there is much time.
To return home... maybe that's what life is all about! Maybe that's our final destination. Or not. A coworker of mine just walked by and said she attended a funeral yesterday... of a 54yo man who was her son's former English teacher, who died during the Metrolink crash a couple of weeks ago in Chatsworth. I was told he just flew back from his mother's funeral, who passed away twelve days prior.
Sometimes I think we're nothing but transients riding on a caravan in the middle of the night... finding a 'home' to rest and then staying long enough just to pack up and be on our way again... It's like all the years we go through life and in the end, we only come back to where we started. There is no end, only resting places...
Don't be sad. What is life with no death? To return home only to prepare for one's next journey.
--
Currently listening:
佛光山 Buddhist Choir - Amitabha Buddha's Holy Name [Chien Hua]
Comments (9)
Beautiful post. I'm so terribly sorry for your friend.
Posted by dantallion | September 30, 2008 2:53 PM
Posted on September 30, 2008 14:53
I am but a singer in your Buddhist choir - I am a tenor. And can do a good falsetto.
There is a poem (tried to Google for it but the fragments I have at my immediate disposal are, alas, too
fragmentary.
About life being a journey and when you have come full circle back to the beginning, you see it with new eyes and it appears as something that yiu have never seen.
Your soul is such a treasure, to me it is.
Posted by will | September 27, 2008 4:56 PM
Posted on September 27, 2008 16:56
I know of a poem, i believe it is titled 'Ithaca'
it is about home - not home as a destination, but as a goal that will give you a life's journey of adventure. that is what home is for me.
Posted by urspo | September 25, 2008 8:59 PM
Posted on September 25, 2008 20:59
Home is where the heart is :)
Posted by Alkam | September 25, 2008 12:58 PM
Posted on September 25, 2008 12:58
Very beautiful. Like Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."
Posted by Steve | September 24, 2008 7:13 PM
Posted on September 24, 2008 19:13
That 's why, eventually, I will move back to CA.
To be closer to family.
Posted by Wayne | September 24, 2008 12:41 PM
Posted on September 24, 2008 12:41
Well put. I know of too many instances where people are returned to their hometown, even after death, to be buried with the family at the cemetery. One of these days I hope to become a transient and move away from "home." :-)
Posted by Steven | September 24, 2008 7:49 AM
Posted on September 24, 2008 07:49
"To return home is only to prepare for one's next journey."
I like that statement. I know it has another meaning than this but , the other day my boyfriend and I were talking about a guy I know that found out he only had a month or two to live. The first few weeks he would actually not be that sick so it would give him time. We were talking about what we would do, Dave said he would try to see a bit of the world as long as he was not in pain etc. I thought about it and said I would not do that. I would want to spend my last days with family and friends, I just can't imagine being in another country and suddenly realizing that soon I will not be with loved ones anymore. What good would looking at old castles do me then. I said I would want to go "home" and yes, it would be to say goodbye, end one journey and prepare for the next.
Posted by Steven | September 24, 2008 5:52 AM
Posted on September 24, 2008 05:52
Transients on a caravan in the night..... how perfect of a description is that! Excellent, spot on, beautifully put.
Posted by A Lewis | September 23, 2008 3:06 PM
Posted on September 23, 2008 15:06