What is it like after life?

What is it like after life? What is death and what comes after death? ...When I was still a teenager studying in a secondary school, I remember there was one night that I really thought about “death”. Everyone in the house was fast asleep but I just couldn’t get to sleep. It was dark and quiet. I couldn’t really exactly remember how that topic came to my mind but I knew I didn’t like the feeling. I closed my eyes and imagined the coffin cover shutting close, there was total darkness and I just couldn’t move. Nobody could hear me, I was just left alone, trapped! Soon, you could feel the shoving of the soil and debris…What could it be like taking the last breath? Would I be going into a deep sleep forever upon death? The feeling of and the thought of losing my loved ones upon death brought me to tears that very night, I was so very fearful and so very alone…I hugged Baby Jingle tightly, hoping to get a little comfort, his fur was a little wet from my tears…I supposed I was tired from crying and I kinda fell asleep after that. Glad it was morning…

As I grew older, maybe I have taken lesser time to think about death but that does not necessarily mean that it is at the stage of acceptance or I have completely come to terms with it. With the passing on of my aunt and grandfather in the recent years, I have come to realise the pain of losing a loved one… Saw the movie title “The Lovely Bones” and read a little about it and thought I was curious about what’s life and everything that comes after it…

In “The Lovely Bones”, Susie Salmon was the girl who was being murdered and she watched over her family and her murderer from heaven. Given the bond that they had as a family, the pain of her parents from the loss of their daughter was really kinda intense in the movie. I like the scene where Susie saw bottles of his father’s precious collection being smashed in the ocean after her death. Her father had lost all hope for he had loved this daughter so dearly…the pieces of glass were so shattered and they cut through the heart with so much pain… For Susie, there was this desire for vengeance but at the same time, there was also this desire to heal, herself and her family. I am not sure if the Oscar winning director, Peter Jackson, has met up to expectations for this movie. His portrayal of heaven seemed poetic and at times, a little like those pictures that you would download from the internet as wallpaper. But I must say some scenes were really beautiful and there was great use of colours to relate feelings and emotions. Generally, I would say that the movie is beautiful to watch.

Coincidentally, Snoop and I were engaged in a kinda philosophical chat via WhatsApp today and she was sharing about what her priest has said at church… A new heaven…a new earth. I was kinda puzzled but yet curious. She continued…We need to surrender to God in order to find a new heaven. I needed more elaboration and she explained…We should not be too concerned with every little problem in life. Sometimes, we are so consumed with all these problems that we forget that there’s so much more in life. Heaven is not just a place we think of when we die. Heaven can be earth… I do not have any religion but I really couldn’t agree more with the last statement, heaven can be earth…