Yin-Yang and Lunch

Yesterday, I went to the cemetery for lunch to eat my Subway Steak-n-Cheese. It was very peaceful. There is a mausoleum there that has bushes growing in front of it. The bushes are starting to get that green look, but not so much that I couldn’t see the intricate interweaving of the various branches. The sun was high in the sky and poured out this beautiful glow onto the stonework and turf.

The whole scene was so moving that I found I actually had to remind myself that I’m sitting in the middle of death. It was, after all, a graveyard. These were all real people at one time. As I looked at a row of headstones, I saw, “father,” “mother,” “daughter,” “daughter,” “daughter.” A family. The earliest death around 1913. The latest around 1957. They reminded me that death is a power that cannot be denied.

Yet, thanks to the arrival of spring, I was also sitting in the middle of newly emerging life. New buds. Singing birds. It was as if even the power of death could not keep life away. While the reality of death could not be dismissed, the power of life also would not be denied.

It made me wonder, to what extent do they make each other complete? What is life without death and death without life? It truly is an awe-inspiring and mysterious universe that we live in. It is good to be a part of it.