Rest in Peace

At first I was going to approach this topic just like anyone would; explaining the way it is universally binding, how everyone and everything on this planet will, at one point, die. In fact, it IS inevitable, one day you will simply cease to exist. And you know what? This world will continue on without you. Sure, some may grieve, but in time they will learn to live without you. That's a scary thought, isn't it? Your life...without you.
Death is usually described with a few basic adjectives, none of them seem to include anything too appealing. What with the imagery of a man in a black cloak coming to find you, and then dragging you off kicking and screaming into his dark underworld, death doesn't seem like such a pleasant step in life. Being dead is described as cold, lonely, empty. Why? Nobody who has felt death has ever really come back to tell the tale, so why do we listen to this myth? For all we know, death could be liberating, freeing! Your soul, broken away from it's mortal body to finally fulfill it's duty for the rest of eternity, free to do as you wish! You could sit with Einstein or the mayans, and simply listen to their stories. You could learn the secrets of the universe and way beyond. You, your spirit, could be freed to do things you could not even imagine locked away in this mortal body...so, why are we afraid?
Why are you afraid?
When someone dies, we all feel that ache; we mourn and dress in black and cry. We do all this, we act as if they have been taken from us when in all honesty, they are free! They were never ours to begin with- our children, our mothers, our fathers and spouses; our brothers and sisters and friends and bosses- they are not ours! We act selfishly as if someone has taken them from us, when the Lord has only brought his child home. Of course we will miss them, of course we have a little part of them inside of us, but it isn't gone. They aren't gone. They have been given the greatest gift of all, we should be celebrating them! Celebrating their life lived, their arrival into the world that we could only ever dream of.
I say, our tears should be from joy. Our prayers should be of thanks, and our hearts, though heavy with mourn, should be proud that someone we knew during one lifetime has become so lucky to move onto the next.
That's all it is, is a step ahead.