Tomb Story

Let me tell you a personal secret.

I never felt at ease in deep waters due to the obvious reason, I only know buoyancy by definition but I can never get myself to float no matter how hard I flap and swing my arms and legs. The underwater gravity is just too strong for me to resist.

I am also afraid of heights especially during plane rides. It has nothing to do with the post 9/11 era but more so with my acrophobia (fear of heights) since childhood. I get dizzy just by looking down from a tall building. So no matter if I have been traveling by airplane in the last 6 years, my chest thumps are still very audible during take off, during landing and any turbulence in between.

Simply put, I am a land person. If I will not be mistaken for a cuckoo-head, I would have kissed the ground every time the plane is safely on the ground.

Now what is my point here?

A few days from now and it will be All Soul's Day. We get to remember our departed loved ones. Some will recall sweet memories and others will remember tough moments. Most will offer prayers. Still others will take note the way they left this world ? a untimely heart attack, a gradually lingering illness, a peaceful sleep turn permanent one, a violent death, a sudden accident or an unanswered mystery or disappearance.

Personally speaking, if there is anything that I will ask God for about my death in the future is that, if possible, it will not involve the water or sky. It is really a pitiful way to ?sign-off? as it would be really abrupt and fearful for me. I’d prefer a terminal illness that I can fight off first and be an inspiration to others - a movie-type story that my family can even sell to movie outfits. Just like everyone else, I wish to be remembered as to had have experienced a "meaningful" death.

But the truth is, neither I nor anybody else will be able to know the time, the place and the way our lives will end. This is solely the prerogative of our own Maker. It is not even productive to be thinking or be even anxious about it at anytime of the day. It should be 100% none of our concern.

Instead we should only be concerned with what the Lord gave us control with - how we are spending our living moments. Are we using His blessings for His purpose or for our own? Are we bridge-ways for others to know God or walls that hinder? Are we reaching out to our least brethrens or snatching off from their pockets to make life harder for them.

Because in the end, what really matter is, not how we will die later but how we are living our lives now.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Amen.