The Death Approach

I have always believed that it is not death that we get sad about, but the suffering that leads ones life to it. After all, death is part of life and is the one thing we will all experience. However, I have had family members and friends who have passed on and I have struggled with understanding why there is so much sadness attached to a person dying. Even for the religious people, who believe after we die we have eternal life (depending on which religion). So why be sad about someone passing on to have eternal life....should that not be a celebration? When in human existence did we decide something so certain like death is so devastating it can send a person to a mental institution when someone they are attached to passes on?Actually, I would like to admit I believe a child dying is devastating. Maybe because we all are entitled to live our lives until we get old and gray? Or maybe because we have lived with the assumption that the correct chronology for death is parents first then children?

10LE's "The sun, myself and Jack Johnson"

I don't believe there is a correct approach on how to feel about death. I believe we are emotional beings who create attachments to people, where we often get comfortable and used to having them close enough to hug. We get used to seeing someone every day and often there is a comfort in knowing someone is a phone call away. When that comfort is interrupted, the interruption creates a void; We do not know how to fill a void which was filled with an attachment to someone who is not comparable to anyone else. Maybe the fear of the unknown; The not knowing for certain if there is a heaven or hell, or where the spirit goes once it leaves its shell, can leaves us shaken and sad. Maybe sadness comes from the realization that nothing lasts forever and that all things are temporary, good or bad. However, if we can step out of the sadness of death, we may be able to find a place of peace and gratefulness. We can be grateful for the opportunity to have created attachments to someone who is not comparable to anyone else, we can be grateful to have had the opportunity to feel love for someone, we can be grateful to have had the opportunity to experience life and to have been invited to take part in someones journey. We can be grateful and find peace that in the end, all of our outcomes are the same; We all die and if we would like to believe, we all meet again.