make time to talk
As we end the week dwelling with the end of life, what conversations do you need to have with the people you love and the people who love you?
Isaiah 38:1
In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.”
In recent months, many of my friends and I have been dealing with the dwindling health of our aging parents and the reality of their deaths in the near or far future.
It is even harder for some of our parents, who are still in denial about the imminence of death.
So when I visited my parents a few weeks ago, all I could do was help them set their house in order, organize important documents, take them to medical appointments, and assist them with the ever-frustrating government bureaucracy involved in getting healthcare and a pension set up.
Sometimes, dealing with the small, mundane details is the only way to deal with the inevitability of death.
So much grace and love and emotional energy are required to fulfill obligations that we forget dying well is as important as living well.
There are two conversations that all of us need to have with the people we love. The first, and easiest, is what do want us to do to remember you? The second, and sometimes hardest, is a conversation about how much someone will be missed, and the love that is shared between people.
While many of us aren't ready for either conversation, both are important. As we end the week dwelling with the end of life, what conversations do you need to have with the people you love and the people who love you?
--Claudia Aguilar Rubalcava