One of the last speeches before his death in 1973, Allan Watts , known theologist and buddhist was about " how to accept death ". He says that in our occidental culture death is seen as something unnatural, something bad. Foremost we are never prepare to face the death of any family member or friend as something more accepting.
He says that having an honorable death means to " make room for others".
And he states that our children arrange us to survive by passing the torch so we can rest.
Very true! Our children will pass our torch to their children and these to their own and so on.
Now the important question is this,
How do we want our torch to be? Do we want a bright burning torch?
Do we want a torch that expired so long ago to be remembered?
Do we want to be remember by our temper? Do we want to be remember by how cold we were to others? Do we want to be remember by how much importance we gave to material possessions?
Were we the angry father? Were we the irresponsible grandfather? Were we the absent parent? What do we want to be remembered for?
As Mother Teresa said,
" If you want to change the world, go home and love your family"
Everything stats there, if we love our family we are giving them wings to fly by their own and expand. They will carry our TORCH!
I have seen many families still caring the shadow of a very extinguished torch. We don't have to. Everything starts with an intention. This is an every day work of what we want to accomplish.
We make our own decisions. Isn't that great! I have seen people of any age always blaming others for their misfortunes, just because for them is easier that way than make a conscious decision about their lives.
I have seen the most amazing people rise from broken homes. The day we understand how powerful we are in the choices we make, humanity will start to see.
What will we see?
We will understand for good, that by loving our neighbor we are loving ourselves.
That by greed and egoism we are hurting others and us too.
That nothing good comes from bad. As Nothing bad comes from good.
That by deceiving others we are lying to ourselves.
By now you probably expect the world to know this, right? There is work to do!
How do you want your torch to be? How far do you want it to reach? This is our time!
Right this moment is the best moment to start.
If we are going to leave something behind when we are gone, let's leave our light and make that torch shine it's brightest, to be the guide of many generations to come.