We Have an Expiration Here on Earth

In this body, we experience time.
And through time, we experience beginnings and endings. Birth and death. Openings and completions. It is this contrast that gives shape to our lives and allows us to live them in a linear, earthly way.

It is beautiful.
And for many, including me, it can also be painful.
Time carries a tenderness to it, but also an ache. Because with time comes change. With time comes loss. With time comes the awareness that nothing in this form lasts forever.

We celebrate birth.
Some celebrate death.
But many live with an anxiety around time itself.

And yet… what if it is all a gift?
What if the body is a gift?
What if life with an expiration date is part of what makes it precious?

It is through time that we learn the value of life.
It is through endings that we learn love.
It is through loss that we come to feel how deeply something mattered.

We experience the death of pets, loved ones, friendships, seasons, identities, and chapters of life.

We mourn.
We grieve.
We let go.

And yet not all endings are painful.

We also celebrate completion.
We celebrate graduations.
We celebrate mastery.
We celebrate the fulfillment of a long journey.
We celebrate when something has ripened fully and reached its natural end.

So can we also learn to honor the ending of a life?
Can we see death, too, as a completion?
As a crossing?
As a sacred return?

We are, in a sense, the prodigal son or daughter returning Home.
Returning to Father/Mother God.

Returning to Source.
Returning to Love.

To be embraced.
To be received.
To be taken back into the arms of the One from which we came.

What a beautiful homecoming.