[costello]

Sorry for sharing an off-topic message here, but I'm so upset and feel the need to talk. The people here are so kind and supportive.

I live at a small county fishing lake. Across the lake from me is a tiny beach, a campground, and a playground. Yesterday a family with a 7 year old boy came out to camp, swim, and enjoy the holiday weekend. At some point the little boy disappeared. He was last seen in the water, and it's likely he drowned. They searched for hours yesterday but weren't able to locate him.

I had a great deal of difficulty sleeping last night and had bad dreams all night. The thought of that little boy's body under the water out there and how his family is suffering right now...

To make matters worse it's rainy and stormy now.

[costello]

They've just announced they found the little boy's body about half an hour ago.

[KUREHA]

Sorry, It sucks when things like that happen, especially when they are young as well.

[costello]

Thanks, Kureha. This thing has bothered me all day. It's so terribly sad.

[Shoe]

Sorry to hear about the lost of the young boy, but at least they found his body. Stories like this are hard for everyone to deal with. About a month ago a couple and their young daughter went hiking to this inland waterfall on one of the Hawaiian islands and a rock about the size of a grapefruit happened to fall from one of the cliffs striking the young girl in the head and killing her instantly. The newscasters and I am guessing that most everyone that heard the story were deeply affected by it. The girl that died was the couple's only child also. Life is so precious.

[spiritual_emergency]

That's terribly sad and tragic costello. I'm not surprised it would weigh on you. Several years ago, in the community I lived in at that time, a young girl was killed when a playmate pointed (and shot) what was believed to be an unloaded gun. The entire community seemed to feel the weight of her family's loss -- all the more so because they loved their own children and were very much aware that this was a child. We all know that death is an inevitable part of life but we are not well-prepared for the death of a child.

We do feel these things but hopefully, we don't become entirely bogged down in them. Somewhere, a child lived today too, due to the result of some random stroke of fortune. Somewhere, a parent's heart rests a bit easier because their child is alive and well, drawing breath in the next room or from the space beside them. When tragedy strikes, we can become blinded to the other side of that same coin. I hope you're able to hold and feel both of them.

~ Namaste

[Can't Stop Crying]

Sorry - I heard that story on the news, such a terrible tragedy!

[SoupDragon]

Sometimes there just no answers, poor little chap :-(

A child at my kids school was killed in an accident and someone shared this poem:

And did you get what you wanted from this life even so?
I did
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved
To feel myself beloved on the earth

[costello]

Thanks, everyone. I feel better today. They had such a sad photo in the paper of the deputies telling the parents they'd found the body yesterday morning. Apparently the parents had stayed at the lake all night. Knowing that makes me feel like my wakefulness that first night was almost like I was keeping a vigil with them.

In the evening news they interviewed a couple of neighbors of the family who seemed like kind people. It helps to know the parents and the bother and sister will be surrounded by loving people.

[mgran]

I'm so sorry that this happened. (((hug)))

[Zircle]

Feel sorry for the family. That's a horrible way to end a holiday.

[fellow]

I feel bad for the family. I had an older sister that died of cancer when she was about 3 years old. I have very vague memories of her. Sometimes I wish she was alive but then I realize that if she was alive my younger sister would have never been born.

My grandma was also diagnosed with cancer several months ago. She's now in hospital because she's very weak, has a lot of pain, and can barely use the restroom. My mother visits her everyday after a long day at work. She doesn't even come home to eat dinner after work. I don't know how to feel about this situation. I wish that life didn't have to end and we could all just live forever.

[costello]

I'm sorry your grandma is in pain, fellow. My dad died quite suddenly of a heartache or stroke in May 1993. He just collapsed in the yard while working on a tree and died. It was a shock to the family, of course, because it was totally unexpected. But it spared him that (pointless, IMO) end of life suffering.

It seems like a good way to go - quickly, outside on a beautiful spring day.

[mgran]

I hope nobody is offended by what I'm about to say, but Fellow... human life doesn't end. The very fact that we feel it is an insult when someone dies, the very fact that we can concieve of life eternal proves that there is something beyond. Every other desire humans have is met by a consumation. We thirst... there is water in the world. We hunger, there is food. We long for physical intimacy, there is sex. We long for life to last... there is eternal life.

It says in the Bible that God has laid eternity in the human heart. That is what you are feeling. You wouldn't hunger for it if there weren't a consumation of that desire. I do believe that you will meet your sister again, that your good mother and grandmother will never be ultimately separated, (and how lovely is your mother, considering how heartless many people are) that you will be with your loved ones, and eternity will not be dull in the least... because you'll have an infinite universe to explore.

Okay, it might sound a tad psychotic, but lots of people have felt this way. I'm not making it up, most religions see the same thing.

[costello]

Originally Posted by mgran

Okay, it might sound a tad psychotic, but lots of people have felt this way. I'm not making it up, most religions see the same thing.

I don't think it's psychotic. It's a religious belief. I happen to believe something a bit different which I can't remember if I heard somewhere else or I made up. I believe that just like our bodies decompose and are recycled into other beings after we die, our soul or spirit returns to an ocean of a sort of life force that runs through everything. It's only an illusion that we're separate. We're all part of one whole. We're just like waves in an ocean. Temporarily we appear to be separate, but we eventually return to the ocean.

So just like maybe my body includes molecules that were once part of George Washington or Gandhi or Marilyn Monroe, my soul is made up of bits from people who went before me.