Beyond the Leaving

When you

release

your body

to breathe

or dance,

to make love

or sleep,

you study death.

Each and every

expiration

is a short course

in dying.

Moving with music

or as one,

you leave

your self

behind.

Laying down

for rest,

you yield

to an inescapable

pause.

If you would

die well,

permit yourself

to fill

with the rush

of breath,

playful movement,

stirring warmth,

and the clarity

of rest.

The angel

of death

bares no harm

to life

unresisted.

So when you feel

a loss

or absence,

when dear ones

part for moments

seeming long,

acknowledge

the stillness.

Pauses

have their place.

Then,

welcome

the sensation

and the motion

which comes within

as practice

for your

final yielding.

Let the hollows

and the aches,

every seeming space

within you

fill with streaming

once again.

Close your eyes

with no thought

of tomorrow,

and if

you never

meet again

in flesh

and bone,

you will still

live

well

beyond

the leaving.

(from Beyond the Leaving, 2011, Gil Hedley)