Life
Is the Diamond
“I
say to people who ask if there is life after death: I answer not to be worried about
that (even though for myself I know there is, for sure), but ask yourself
rather, if there is life before death.”
Fr.
Guidalberto Bromolini (“Make This Moment a Diamond,” in Parabola, Spring, 2022,
p. 29)
Father
Guidalberto Bormolini is founder of Village of Everything is Life, outside of
Florence, Italy. “It is a spiritual community, a school to teach others how
to support the dying, and a hospice for those at the end of life.” (Parabola, p.
29) He is a priest, and a scholar of ancient and modern spiritual and
religious teachings—everything from the ancient Hindu Mahabharata, to
Gurdjieff, to the ancient Judeo-Christian teachings, to modern Buddhism. He speaks
about death as a moment on a continuum of life.
Having
already said goodbye to all my family of origin, I can tell you this—people die
as they have lived. If your life has meant something to you beyond the gaining
of goods and services, if you have “spent” your time here in love with life,
and feel good about how it has gone, then death is the same way—it is welcomed
with gratitude and peacefulness. I’ve heard people say, “I’ve lived a good life,”
and mean that they are at peace with the next step. If, on the other hand, you
have lived life as an angry person, bitter with the cards you’ve been dealt,
and resenting anyone who has not faced your challenges, death is harder—just one
more disappointment in a long series of them.
I
believe, as does Father Bormolini, that death is a continuation of life. That
after death of the physical body, you are a body of light recognizable as
yourself, and with soul-tasks to accomplish in that realm just as you have here
on this plane of existence. Where you begin there depends upon where you end
here. So, the question comes back around to, “how am I living my life?”
Fr. Bormolini says, “I
am here with you now. In an hour, I might not be here. So, what I am living now
with you is the most important moment in my existence, because it could be the
last moment.” (p. 36) The very brevity of life makes it precious. Even if we
have just been born, and even if we live to be 100 years old, it is impossible
to see and do all there is to see and do—we must pick and choose. And how we
choose, and what we choose to give our minutes and hours to, makes all the
difference.
I, and most
of my friends, have already crossed the threshold into the last quarter of
life. Most of this lifetime is in the rearview mirror. We have entered the developmental stage called “letting go.” What we let go of, hopefully willingly, goes beyond
our possessions, and includes our youth, our days of care-free lovemaking and
child-rearing, our physical beauty and desirability, but also, our neurotic
grasping and competitiveness and arrogance. We also gain enormously during this
time—we gain in wisdom, spiritual strength, comfort in our own skin, the ability to laugh at ourselves, and acceptance
of life’s gifts and responsibilities. It becomes clearer that life is for
living, loving, joy and gratitude, and not about banking up anything material—not
money, not possessions, not accomplishments or glittery prizes. Life itself is
the diamond—living it well is the prize.
Fr.
Bormolini says this: “If you want this wine, you have to empty what is not
precious from the cup, the things of low quality. In Egyptian hieroglyphics the
cup symbolizes the heart. The heart must be free in order to be filled with the
drink of immortality. The nectar of immortality. If we have this empty cup,
then the divine can fill it to infinity.” May it be so.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
P.S. The interview with Fr. Bormolini in Parobola,
Spring, 2022, is well worth reading. It will comfort your soul.
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