I was thinking today about what defines life. Part of it is being connected to other things. Part of life is the experience from day to day that delineates who we are. If we quit experiencing things does that mean we are no longer connected to that life around us? From time to time I care for elderly folks. I often marvel how long the human body will continue with the mind absent. I often wonder what these people are connected to at this point. Certainly even now my own connection to life is so different from what it was 20 years ago. Life then was so consumed with caring for small ones. Helpless ones that needed the mother bear. Now that time has passed and I have time to consider the clouds, the sunset and the moon stealthily slipping up to the zenith of the sky. What is it that we do that keeps us connected to life and others? Is it something that we can consider automatic or must we struggle to preserve it? Must we hold tight fearing an unknown surrender ? Or do we open our fingers with an accepting intention and allow the flowers to fall quietly to the ground?
