For the very first time today I have attended a memorial service in London.
A wonderful Jasmine dedicated the afternoon to her lovely son Jos, which passed away recently.
I had only met Jos in a couple of occasion; his deep sensitivity and kindness touched me right away.
The room was filled with friends of both, the mother and the son, remembering sweet and funny times spent together. His presence could be felt so strongly: the photos displaying his beautiful smile, his ashes in a casket on a table by the wall, and the warmth remembrance of his dear ones talking about him.
It felt as if Jos was just there, gazing at all the familiar faces that were paying tributes to him.
On the table, near Jos's ashes casket there was a page with a beautiful story, The Dragonfly Story, which I read with eagerness. The story is aimed at children to let them familiarise with the concept of Death.
After reading it I felt that it very much applies to any age since it holds very simple and important concepts that many people ignore: life as evolutionary and transformational process, rather than a specific time with a beginning and an END.
I wish to dedicate this story to whomever might have suffered a bereavement in the long or the short past and for some reason have been finding it difficult to move on from the events.
Hold dear your precious past, but do not let it be a burden to your present life. Live fully your present day, filling it with Love, Happiness and contentment where ever you are at today, as it will pave the days to follow, the way you wish them to be.
The Dragonfly Story
Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond.
They did notice that every once in awhile one of their colony seemed to lose interest in going about. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily it gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more. "Look!" said one of the water bugs to another. "one of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you think she is going?" Up, up, up it slowly went....Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight.
Its friends waited and waited but it didn't return...
"That's funny!" said one water bug to another. "Wasn't she happy here?" asked a second... "Where do you suppose she went?" wondered a third. No one had an answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its friends together. "I have an idea". "The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why.".
"We promise", they said solemnly.
One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up, he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broke through the surface of the water and fallen onto the broad, green lily pad above. When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn't believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings...The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water.
He had become a dragonfly!!
Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad to rest.
Then it was that he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs! There they were scurrying around, just as he had been doing some time before. The dragonfly remembered the promise: "the next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he or she went and why." Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly he hit the surface of the water and bounced away. Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water...
"I can't return!" he said in dismay. "At least, I tried. But I can't keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my new body. I guess I'll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too. Then they'll understand what has happened to me, and where I went."
And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air.......
STICKNEY, D. (1997). Water Bugs and Dragonflies.
Explaining Death To Young Children. The Pilgrim Press.
Jas during the Gong's meditation
