Are We STILL Training?

Basics Check-in

How is the contemplation going?

Any of these stick for you the last week?

I’ll say that I am all about D/death.  I’m about the end of toxic relationships, of a soul-sucking job, of my jaundice-looking skin in Seattle winters.  I’m all about the person who has lived a full life and is like I’m good to go and they slip off peacefully in their sleep.  I am even game for my own death… [at a predictable time and cause of course!]

When I was tall enough to set the table, my Grannie told me to turn the glasses upside down.  I thought it was another adage to commit to memory –a Caribbean woman’s fear of dust.  Growing up in NYC might as well have been Trinidad for me (first-generation culture), but it was so much more than that.  I remember her telling me, paraphrased of course, in some Trini patois:  your next meal is not guaranteed. So when you do come to the table and get to turn that glass over, you thank God for sparing your life. Today.  

What she was teaching me was not only gratitude but also a kind of surrendering to things we don’t have control over. So no matter how much I think of probable fatal causes for my numerous invisible illnesses, anything could take me out, but more importantly, I could be so careless as to not appreciate the moments I have. 

This reminder in particular leaves me with an appreciation for how invaluable it is to have been born in this human vessel and that living a good life opens the doors to having a good death, whenever it may come. 

In a time riddled with loss, something about this knowing offers me some ground. May it offer a taste of the same to you.