Today marks the one year anniversary of when my beloved husband of 27 years left us here on earth. It's often said when a loved one leaves after suffering through a horrific disease such as cancer "they are in a better place."
I've been thinking a lot about that lately and wonder what it really means for those loved ones who are no longer here to share in the joys and sorrows of all that life as humans has to offer. While there are challenges in our every day and rarely do we make it through life without stresses, worries, disappointments, and more, we really don't know anything better. It's all we know and what we have.
When we anticipate death and think of our loved ones in a "better place," and because all I know is this place, the thing that gives me comfort is thinking that Philip doesn't know he's not here. So, I'm not sure it's better because there is no way to measure or compare.
Does he have a new life in a "better place"? I really don't know. But what I do know is it's new for me and our family.
Embracing "new" is part of being human. New days. New opportunities. New life. Even in death we experience "new." It's how we behold "new" and embrace it is what gives us meaning to life here on earth. Do we look to it as a burden or do we feel joyful anticipation of how it will make us feel or what we can do in the new moment?
Welcome new day. I look to the past - the old - and remember joys that were new then, but old now. I look to the present that is new with each blink of my eye. I embrace the future moments that are all new because that, quite honestly, is all we have and all we know.
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