Eternal Life

I was scrolling through quotes in Pinterest, which I do on a pretty regular basis since I’m a quotes nerd, and I found this poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye, pictured below.

I really love this poem.  It's so beautiful and can provide comfort to those who have lost a loved one.  More than just being beautiful and providing comfort, this poem also perfectly translates my beliefs when it comes to death and the afterlife.  I believe that those who have died may not be here in their former physical form anymore, but they will live on forever in spirit.  Bodies may die, but souls live forever.  Souls can take any form, so even though the ones we love won’t be there in their former physical form anymore, we will still be able to see them in other forms.  In sunlight, in the wind, in birds, in trees, in any number of living things. 

Some people may think that this idea is absurd and that once a person dies they are completely dead, but I disagree.  I’ve had a number of loved ones die, and for every person that has died, I have heard my family and friends tell experiences of seeing these people in other forms after they’d died. Some were seen in dreams, some in whispers in the wind, and others just in the feeling of a spirit beside them.   One experience that particularly touched me was the experience that my mom and dad experienced after my uncle Randy died. 

My mom and dad were in their pool, trying to relax after the stress of the news and the preparation for the funeral, when all of a sudden a Monarch butterfly fluttered down to touch my dad and then flew away.  As the butterfly flew away and moments after, both my mom and dad were silent, both somehow knowing that the butterfly was Uncle Randy.  His spirit lives on and comforts his loved ones.  What makes me believe this encounter even more is that a couple days before this I had a similar experience.  I was feeling stressed out from both the news of Uncle Randy’s death as well as my new job I had acquired, so I decided to take a walk.  The walk wasn’t helping at first, however.  Unhappy, fearful thoughts fluttered through my head, until I saw a Monarch butterfly sitting by the side of the road.  It was strange because he didn’t appear to be injured yet he was sitting there so nicely and barely even moved when I reached down to pet his wing.  It was such a beautiful experience, and after hearing my mom and dad’s story about their butterfly, I knew that the butterfly I encountered must have been Uncle Randy, too.

I sometimes don’t know what I believe in because it truly is hard to believe in things when you live in a world of such uncertainty, but one thing is certain: I believe in the everlasting soul.  I believe that after people die, their souls live on for eternity.  They become the whisper in the wind, the butterflies in the flowers, the gentle autumn rain, and the tree softly creaking in the breeze.  Their souls live on in the spirit of nature, and in our hearts, forever.