Turning 60, it's hard to believe. In one way I feel no different from when I was 20, yet from all the experiences over the years, everything is very different.
Being with my Father when he died last Christmas, it was the greatest reminder and gift that I could have been given. To remember that this life, this moment is so precious.
I have met many teachers in my life and of those Papaji was profound in that he presented me with the most basic fundamental question that I had never really seriously asked myself - "who am I", a simple but profound question. I feel sincerely grateful and blessed to have met Papaji.
When my 29 year old girl friend died of cancer when I was 32. She had been given a prognosis that she should have died 6 months before I met her. So when we were together she was so grateful for everything and everyone. She would go to bed at night, and not know if she would wake up in the morning ? And then on finding herself waking in the morning, she would have so much joy and gratitude to see the sunshine, clouds in the sky and the birds singing. She lived every moment with such gratitude, nothing and no one was taken for granted. As a consequence she was one of the most kind, alive and loving people I had ever met.
She was such a reflection for me to see my own arrogance of taking life for granted. It was inspiring and humbling to see her embracing death, knowing that any moment could be her last, she had such an aliveness - Love and gratitude shone so brightly from her, and all around her.
So at 60 there's a lot of reflection, and my Father, Papaji and Charlene stand out because of what they have given me. They have shown me that to embrace death, is to see that every moment is so precious, and could be the last, and that gratitude is born out of that. I can see that to embrace that fact is the door way to kindness, care, generosity, joy, love, peace, aliveness and silence.
At 60 this song I wrote sums it up for me ~ Sweet Surrender http://kundamusic.com/track/646432/sweet-surrender?feature_id=123461&trackship_id=716436
