Birth and Death

Tue, 12/09/2008 - 08:00

A fine line

Birth and death seem like opposites and yet are they? A new life is born and to be born, it must die to another world. A baby dies to the womb and is born to this world. And how traumatic that experience may seem.

A child suddenly finds itself being pushed, thrust, heaved and lugged around by the very muscles that cushioned him for so long. At first, the contractions appear to stop and there is hope that they may go away. But soon they become more and more intense and eventually all hope of escaping them gives way to acquiescence.

Having no way of remaining in the comfort zone he's come to know the child has to fight his way forward into a new world, full of light and sound and air. A world with new dimensions and stimuli; a world he must learn to navigate, with senses yet undiscovered.

It's a miracle really. For us, who we stand around and observe, knowing that the baby will be born into our love and safety, it is a wonderful experience. But for the baby it may be scary and unknown. He doesn't know what to expect. And who can really relieve his stress? And who would want to? They are a necessary part of his growth to ensure his arrival into this world.

But oh how different we feel when someone is old and stands at the threshold to what we call death from our perspective. We think their life is coming to an end and we don't see their struggle as labour pain. We look it as a burden or an unnecessary evil. We see it as a cruel, undignified ending to a life that was challenging enough. The Alzheimers, the Parkinsons, the dementia, or even the subtler, nameless contractions of our grannies and grandpas; their endless repetitions of stories, their attempts at transferring to us their wisdoms, their nagging and complaining, their nightmares and panic attacks – are they necessary?

Maybe they are. Maybe they're a part of letting go and moving on, because once the contractions become that violent, it gets easier to just surrender and move forward...
Bookmark and Share
»

* Login or register to post comments
* Email this Blog

Thu, 2009-01-29 14:10 — Aryan

I like your analogy, one could also look at the soul dying in the spiritual world to come into the physical to be in the womb... but is death the down side or the joy?

The unknown even in life is scary, it reminds me of the story of the lover who lost his beloved in the seven valleys taken from the story of Liala and Majnoon or it actually can be taken from Farhad and Shirin. In his plight he knew not that he was guided to his beloved and yet along the way all he did was curse, feel sorrow for himself, so self involved was he in himself that he could not foresee the joy and blessing that was to come from his struggle.

If we knew of the outcome of our struggle would we still struggle and fight? This also brings me back to the Lawh-i-Qad-Ihtaraqa'l-Mukhlisun (Fire Tablet) in which Baha'u'llah is having a conversation with God. "...Indeed the hearts of the sincere are consumed in the fire of separation..." which he goes on to talk about all the calamities and problems that face Him. He then gets his reply ...Lament not because of the wicked. Thou wert created to bear and endure... Verily, I have heard Thy call, O All-Glorious Beloved; and now is the face of Bahá flaming with the heat of tribulation and with the fire of Thy shining word, and He hath risen up in faithfulness at the place of sacrifice, looking toward Thy pleasure, O Ordainer of the worlds...."

To be honest I love this Tablet and I say it in my times of sorrow... As always change is the hardest thing for all of us to accept, be it birth, growing up, or life!