~April 21
This is how nature, our mother, acts toward us.
First, she gives us life. And then, as though
that were not miracle enough, she revives us
daily, bringing us back to life each dawn, just as
she brought us into life that first time.
Then she gives us food, enough to sustain
ourselves throughout our days. And finally,
when we have filled our days with her kindness,
she takes us back into herself, we fall back
into her deep womb, safe in her sacred darknesses.
—Roman prayer to the earth, third century C.E.
The goddess of birth is also the goddess of death. It is easy, in the pleasant days of springtime, to forget that these burgeoning plants will all die—some this year, as their annual cycle ends, and some in years to come, as when ancient oaks fall in springtime storms. And not only plants, but animals, will all die when their turn comes. The tiny chicks who today call their small sounds from spring nests will one day fall from the bright sky. Today’s kittens and puppies will live out their days, then go back to the earth.
We, too, will die someday, as will our friends and loved ones. Perhaps today, one who is close to you will depart this life. Perhaps next week, next month, someone you love will die. Living with awareness of how near death stands is neither morbid nor terrifying. Rather, it deepens our love, for we recognize how fragile we all are, how soon we will all be gone, passing like weather across the face of a spring-green mountain.
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