10 Quotes About the End of Life
Compiled by Rev. Jan Thomas
The Chaplaincy Institute community recently lost a much-beloved student, Pamela De Ferrari. Pam's dedication to her studies, depth of spirit, and irrepressible joy lifted us all. We were blessed to walk alongside her in her last months. She modeled how to live fully in the midst of uncertainties and impermanence.
The following quotes are dedicated to all who are grappling with the loss of a loved one.
1.
"Drink from this heart now,
for all this loving it contains.
When you look for it again,
it will be dancing in the wind."
(Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir)
2.
"The ten thousand things arise together;
in their rising is their return.
Now they flower, and, flowering, sink homeward,
returning to the root.
The return to the root
is peace.
Peace: to accept what must be,
to know what endures.
To know what endures
is to follow the Tao,
the way
that endures forever."
(Tao Te Ching #16, “Returning to the Root,”
Ursula K. LeGuin's rendition)
3.
"At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love.
We are going to sky, who wants to come with us?
We have gone to heaven, we have been the friends of the angels,
And now we will go back there, for there is our country. ...
Our death is our wedding with eternity."
(Rumi)
4.
"Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
And prepare a noble death song for the day
when you go over the great divide.
When your time comes to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with fear of death.
Sing your death song,
and die like a hero going home.”
(The Teaching of Tecumseh, Attitude Toward Death)
5.
“What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the sunset.”
(Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator)
6.
“Those who are dead are never gone:
they are there in the thickening shadow.
The dead are not under the earth:
they are there in the tree that rustles,
they are in the wood that groans,
they are in the water that runs,
they are in the water that sleeps,
they are in the hut, they are in the crowd,
the dead are not dead…
they are in the grasses that weep,
they are in the whimpering rocks,
they are in the forest,
they are in the house,
the dead are not dead.”
(Birago Diop, Poem, from Mali)
7.
“May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.”
(Chief Dan George)
8.
"Seeing death as the end of life
is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean."
(David Searls)
9.
“Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.”
(Joyce Fossen)
10.
"My spirit's body is rising near...
Do not be sad, my old friends;
look, these wings
are finally stretched and laughing!
Now lift me into your arms, dear God,
like something precious that you dropped."
(St. John of the Cross)
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