Mum...

By Vichara

As you may have noticed a couple of weeks ago there was a gap in the "Thought Of The Day" messages. On the 24th of September my Mum transitioned from this life to the next. While of course never truly prepared her death came after a brave struggle with cancer for a number of years. So if you will indulge me with this one entry dedicated to her. From the Sermon on the Mount Christ said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”.

In this passage from this sermon I think of God as the poet Rainer Maria Wilke once suggested that we think of God as a direction, rather than an object. It is in that we look at God as an ideal and a catalyst to embody a good heart, a giving spirit and those qualities that Mum possessed and gave freely not to just family members, but to even the casual of acquaintances.

As an example of this I remember a number of years ago when Mum came to spend Christmas with my wife Corey and I in California with our newly adopted daughter Selena. As we waited by the baggage carousel at the airport fellow passengers from Mum’s flight passed us and would say “see you later Mona”, “good to meet you Mona”, “have a good time Mona”. In that short number of hours from New York to Burbank Mum created new friends to the extent that you felt that those that stopped by knew her for a long time. She had just that effect on people.

Buddhist monks recite daily the Five Remembrances, “I will lose my youth, my health, my dear ones and everything I hold dear, and finally lose life itself, by the very nature of my being human”. Yes these are bitter reminders but we should not think of the fact that all things we hold dear and love as transient and perhaps mean we should love less. We should instead love even more. Suffering, the Buddha said, if it does not diminish love, will transport you to a farther shore. You can bet on that shore will be my Mum waiting for all of us with a big smile, a bingo card (a winning one, of course!), a hearty laugh and a hug & kiss for each one of us.

See you later Mum.