NOVEMBER 23
I do not know whether human personality survives physical
death. I am content to wait and see what comes after death,
open to any possibility. If it should turn out to be eternal
sleep, that too is a gift after a full life.
—ELIZABETH WATSONThis seems small comfort when we are caught up in fresh
grief at the loss of a loved one. A part of our life has been
severed, and we long desperately for that relationship.
There is no way to know in what terms that may be pos-
sible after death. But as time passes, we see that, even in the
physical absence of the loved one, the relationship does re-
sume, as we sense the person’s influence and presence with
us in subtle and pervasive ways.
As for the possibility that death is eternal sleep...think of
the tiredest you have ever been and how inviting sleep was.
Is that so bad? Especially when you know the essence of
who you were will be with your loved ones for the rest of
their lives.
Having no alternative...I will trust life with what I cannot know.