When a life ends what happens to what was? Do they/it go to Heaven, Hell or In-between or just stop being?

On a lighter note, while doing research for a play I was writing we did some research as to how many different ways the newspaper obituaries tell how the dear dead person died. Well, there are at least 50 different ways, my favorite is “died”…………but the variation goes on from that to “danced into the arms of Jesus”, “passed away”, “went to be with their Lord and Savior”. My point here is not to make fun of these sayings, but to lead  to what do they really say about what happened and where did they go?

“Miss Pearl” : our dear cat was found 2 days after she was missed in the North Garden (what was left of her that is!) Only the back two legs were there. She was 14 years old and had lived at least 5 lives that we know about, but this time there was no doubt….she wasn’t just under the shed recovering from some illness or encounter with a bad squirrel or another cat this time.

“Miss Pearl” was just a kitten when her mother and sister/brother came wandering through the yard one morning on their way to the other side of the back fence. They would be gone for about 2 hours and then would come lazily wandering back under the fence on their way back home. For a couple of weeks I’d talk to her (she hung back several times and looked like she was interested in staying)………..then I offered treats! And then one morning I went out on the sun deck  and there she was curled up on one of the chair pillows under the umbrella! And from that day on she was part of the family!

She “got me through” 2 family deaths and many trials and tribulations over the past 14 years. She always kept that “hey, look I’m a feral kitten! Don’t expect me to let you pick me up or sit in your lap!” BUT this past year…………she would come in the house and learned how to lay down and get treats for doing so! Outside was her world. She enjoyed everyday! Anything was game! If you moved………….you were it! We know she was happy!

But something “got her” and she died. I haven’t cried. I’m sad and I miss her but at this point in my life I believe in The Circle of Life! Miss Pearl’s body was used to make sure some owl or hawk or coyote youngling makes it to adulthood. Her dying like that is better to me than having cat lukemia and suffering weeks in pain and discomfort. Her spirit has gone to wherever all of our spirits go when they leave our bodies! The essence of what we are lives on. Exactly what we are then and where we go………….we don’t know but I believe we continue (all of us, the people, the animals, the plants……absolutely everything goes on………….in some form and fashion!)

When something in our lives leaves, it leaves a vacuum. Into that vacuum something new and different will come in. This creates the change that makes our lives interesting and a continuous line of lessons that we are supposed to learn.

We are all blessed that this is the way of The Circle of Life….and our duty is to seek HAPPY in every road and byway that leads us there!

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