This week's Letter is from a law professor who wishes to remain anonymous. She graduated from law school in the 90s and dedicates this Letter to Life and all it has taught her.
Dear Life,
What a master you have been. I have learnt many things from you, some life-long and others embedded at soul level. However, the lessons I learned when experiencing the passing of a loved one stand out forever to be internalised, remembered and reminded of at different stations of my life.
I always remain guided by one motto in life: every experience has a lesson to teach. Hence the question: what I am to learn from this experience?
The one experience that took me a while to process was the passing of a loved one. When it first happened, I felt that there was nothing to be learned from the passing of a loved one, other than grief and sorrow. It just has to be accepted and experienced. Well, it took two other passings to realise that perhaps there was something deeper to be learned. Like all things in life, if the lesson is not learned, it keeps repeating till you learn it right.
Now I realise, when a loved one passes, you do not only feel grief and sorrow. Grief and sorrow are real but if you keep an open mind and heart, you will always feel them in your heart even after their passing. A lesson deeply learned. If you learn to overcome the need for seeing them with your eyes, you will see that love transcends all boundaries, including death. It is at that moment we realise that the bond and love shared do not end with death. By death we see value in living and learn not to take for granted many things, including time with loved ones. Treasure it deeply, as time with loved ones, like most things, is finite.
Live well and when that time too comes for us to go, we can do it with greatest happiness knowing it has been lived well, without regrets and in accordance with the laws of nature.
For those of you who have lost your loved ones and remain in sorrow, remember: just because the table is now set for one, it does not mean that they are not with you. The love you share with them remains real and alive, always. Learn to let go of the physical body and all you have to do at that darkest moment when the physical self is gone is to honestly open and feel your heart. Not an easy task, but it can be achieved. You will feel them. Maybe that is what they call unconditional love.
So thank you, Life, for these lessons I have learned so dearly. A passing is not the end and the love you share will remain forever edged in the heart giving you comfort and fullness.
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye”
-Antoine de-Saint Exupery