One of my friends went to India a while back. She told me this story about how she was waiting on a train platform for a train to come. In India the trains have their own schedule and you can sometimes wait quite a while for your train to come.
People were camped out on the platform, making themselves comfortable. Some had little braziers going and where cooking and sharing food. Kids played on the tracks and life bustled around her. She laid out her little cloth and that was her space.
In the middle of the night, the old man that was lying on one side of her died. He was attended by his family members who held his hand and wept and praised his life.
And while that was going on, the woman next to her on the other side, gave birth to a child. All around the laboring mother, the women wept and praised the new life. And then the train came and everyone got on board.
“That is life in India,” she told me.
And I thought, “That is life?!”
This week has been like that for me. I have been holding space for two significant losses this week, both unexpected. They were young people whose death came out of the blue and have left their communities devastated by loss and grief.
And at the same time, there has been birth and joy. New life, new hope has entered the world with these babies, these little humans. They are beginning their journey here and sweeping us all into joy.
This happened even in the microcosm of my office. I had one session with someone experiencing the powerful bereavement of a recent loss. We cried together, mourned and celebrated the love that was still there. The room was filled with such sweet and tender love.
And then my very next client was a lovely pregnant mother-to-be who came in round and glowing, with her partner. Their baby is coming soon and we sat together and cried and celebrated this new life and their first steps on their journey as parents and the room was filled with love, all joyous and bright like a new shiny penny.
One doesn’t diminish the other, they the beginning and the end of the same road after all.
“Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.” Lao Tzu
And that thread is made of love.
