On a cold November day when the days are short and the darkness enters the day early, I went for a walk to catch some light rays and to watch a magnificent blue of the winter sky.
I walked along a busy, loud and dirty highway wondering if this was something I really wanted and if this might be much better to turn back and have a hot tea at home. Suddenly I saw a gate and entered an area which turned out to be a cemetery. My original plan was to go to a park, but I took a wrong street and this was where I landed.
When I entered the cemetery, a loud and dusty way disappeared and I found myself in a totally different world: silent, peaceful, and warm. I was watching gravestones and reading the names, dates of birth and death. I was imagining how people lived their lives, who they were, what they worked, whom they loved, how they died, finally finding their peace here at this ground.
Suddenly it occurred to me what a huge gift it is to know that we will die one day. What an act of grace to have the certainty that each journey has an end. Even if the end is always is the beginning of something new. But there is an end and it means that whatever we do, however we live, whatever decisions we make and what turns we take, we will finally end at peace.
I felt a huge relieve as if a heavy stone was falling off my shoulders. I felt that there was no way to live my life „wrongly“ and I have the permission to live my life fully. I felt joy and lightness in my body as if I was flying on this cold November day, filled with warmth and sun inside.
To embrace death is to embrace life. To embrace the end is to say yes to the journey.