We’re two weeks in. Four weeks to go. The next few posts I plan on writing are centered around lessons I have learned during this journey. I am sure I have many more yet to lean, but here is one I was allowed to learn today.
Death can be beautiful. While hiking to a waterfall in Mt Ranier National Park, we came upon a dead tree. We had surely passed many dead trees without paying them any mind, but this one stood out from the rest in that it was starkly white in contrast to the hues of greens and browns that lay as its backdrop. I have no idea why it was white, why it died, or really anything of its story. But I do know that even in death it stood straight and tall, contributing greatly to the beauty of the life around it.
I think that especially in our more Western cultures we tend to avoid the topic of death, and it therefore, almost by default, takes on a darkness and a lack of beauty. I don’t mean to discount the pain death can cause for those left to grieve. Certainly death can bring sorrow. I know this fact personally, as this very week marked the one year anniversary of my grandfather’s death. He was one of the single most greatest influencers of my life, and I will never stop missing him. But I think that when one’s life is lived in such a way that they grow straight and tall, that the character they build, the lives they positively impact, and the strength they gain through adversity, that even in death their memorial continues to contribute to the beauty of life.
Thank you for that reminder, old tree. In you I was allowed to see my grandpa once again and was also reminded of the legacy I wish to leave.
Death can be beautiful, but more so when the life was lived straight and tall.
journeywithus 