Think ICT

I was reading about heart conditions today because I’m thinking a lot about my 92 year old mom who is experiencing a significant decline in her health. This article from the Cleveland Health Clinic is quite helpful in describing congestive heart failure (CHF). It starts with a description of what it is, then talks about diagnosis, treatment options, and lots of other aspects of care. There’s one statistic in the article that stood out for me:

“More than 6 million people in the United States have congestive heart failure. It’s the leading cause of hospitalization in people older than 65.”

In our family, most of us have been pretty healthy most of our lives. That means when one of us does have a health issue, it tends to be a big deal. We go through emotions of denial and frustration because we think “hey, yesterday we felt just fine and today you’re telling me there’s something to take seriously!” And when someone is 90-something, I think it’s a good idea to talk about what’s next!

Lately we have had discussions with mom about what happens when we die and how to be okay with the fact that one moment we are here, living in our body on this earth, and the next minute we are not. Or in some cases, people know they are on their way out and have a long time to reconcile with the idea that they are dying. I can remember when my maternal grandma got to the age of 100, she would often say “I don’ know why I’m still here.” She was totally fine with moving on sooner than later. In my mom’s case, she very matter-of-factly says “when you die, you die.”

So what do you think happens when we die? Of course there are many different beliefs about death and dying and what comes next. In my case, I have read many accounts of near death experiences (NDE) from people of different beliefs and from the sacred writings of my own faith (Baha’i). My understanding of these various belief systems is that in almost all cases, there is a belief that something comes next – the afterlife. And the next thing that happens after our body dies is that we are born into another world where we are free of all the kinds of suffering that we experience here.

I love this description from ‘Abdu’l-Baha which equates us to a bird in a cage which gets released when we die:

“To consider that after the death of the body the spirit perishes, is like imagining that a bird in a cage will be destroyed if the cage is broken, though the bird has nothing to fear from the destruction of the cage. Our body is like the cage, and the spirit is like the bird…if the cage becomes broken, the bird will continue and exist. Its feelings will be even more powerful, its perceptions greater, and its happiness increased…”

There’s more to ponder from a Baha’i perspective here.

Here’s a different site with a more Catholic orientation.

And here’s another site that explains death from a Muslim perspective.

I also like this article written from a Jewish perspective on death.

Lastly, I’ll share this fascinating article regarding eastern wisdom about death.