I haven't answered that question yet... but I've been playing with lots of different thoughts and ideas.
This year though, my Dad died. It's been over 20 years since my Mum died. I was thinking about the differences. I'm almost at the age Mum was when she died. So death is right up there in my thoughts.
To assist with my recovery from death and illness, I went on a writing retreat. I began to write about death. It's been such a healing process... even if I've shed more than a few tears as I've written.
Death, like sex, is another "taboo" subject that as a society we don't talk about in any depth. We've very good at skimming the surface (i.e. giving the basic details, asking the acceptable questions) and we don't go any deeper.
A friend asked me the other day how I was doing. I said I was going okay. She then stopped me, and asked me how the grieving process was going. I haven't been asked that before. It was a much deeper question and took more time for me to think of a response than my usual, "I'm fine, thanks."
Do we have spaces in society to speak about death at a deeper level?
I think that's where I want to focus my thoughts and words. Hopefully I will be back soon with more thoughts and questions.
And, just a note, it's not going to be dreary or sad, well, not all the time anyway. I think death and life go hand-in-hand, so we need to bring all emotions to the death conversations.
