Gifts of Life. Embrace of Death. What is in between?

I am not at war with death, I embrace death.  An awkward statement to make by one who is in the medical profession.  Healing does not require life to continue unendingly.  It merely requires us to accept the gift of life in a body and accept the gift of the death of that body.  Life is a cycle of gifts.  The sun gifts us light.  The plants gift us photosynthesis and with that a plethora of unique life giving substances via fruits, vegetables, building materials, and healing compounds.  Animals gift us our lives so that we may live.  May we too gift our lives so the earth may live. I wish to make the fruits of my life a gift so others may live.  To do so I must embrace life and ultimately death.  My ceasing to exist allows for new ones to bring forth their gifts.   Often our attempts to avoid death are a great boon to the economy, yet ultimately will fail.  Death comes for us all.

All of these things in the natural world are given to us.  Yet increasingly our lives are taken over by a commoditization of everything.   Humans have figured out how to charge for everything... even yoga :)  Increasingly our lives are spent “making money” and servicing the unending debt that is required to have a “normal” life in this society.  As a descendant of slaves, I am troubled to look at my life and see the multitude of ways that I am still a slave.  I love Bob Marley’s lyrics “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds... Have no fear for atomic energy..”  Must have struck a chord as “Redemption Song” has over 29 million hits on You Tube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFGgbT_VasI&feature=kp


In attempting to emancipate myself I ran across the book “Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in an Age of Transition”  by Charles Eisenstein.  I started it on my plane ride this morning up to Seattle and have been unable to put it down.  I am especially excited as his book promises to offer tangible solutions, not just trash on the problems with the status quo.  I look forward to hearing his thoughts and solutions... Check it out.  http://charleseisenstein.net/project/sacred-economics/
http://sacred-economics.com/film/

This exploration has lead to a newfound purpose in my life.  In the time between my birth and death, I will strive for two things:  Helping others heal themselves and the planet, and helping others emancipate themselves from financial slavery...  May our lives be a great gift to the whole.  Here’s to a great adventure!