Celebrate Life, Not Death

A child's first experience with death is usually with a family pet. No matter how large or small the creature the pain that a child will feel is immeasurable. It is a very hard transition for a child to go through, but it is a natural cycle of life.



Just recently my daughter's pet rat, Mamma, got ill. My daughter(age 13) was very heartbroken at the idea of Mamma passing away. Mamma will not be the first pet that my daughter will have experienced death with, but none the less there is still considerable heartache for my daughter.

So we talked.



I explained to her that death and sickness are an unfortunate part of the life cycle. Yes it hurts the heart that we cannot fix certain illnesses and old age, but we shouldn't fear it. Dying is a returning to the All. We are born, we live, we get ill, we die. That is life. How we choose to live life is the option.



Mamma Rat



We talked about how Mamma's life has been a long one for a rat. How she has had a full life filled with love, companionship and comfort. She had been bought to be food for out pet snake, Bebe (the snake) didn't eat her and she had babies the next day when we were going to return her to the pet store. She became a pet. She has become friendly and has had her daughter as a companion since the day she was born. (The 2 male rats are in a separate cage in my sons' room.)

My daughter has opted for us to bury Mamma when she passes and to have a small ritual for her as well. We will find a pretty place for her and decide on the details of the ritual together.

I suggested that we do not mourn her passing but that we celebrate life! She agrees and we will have a nice funeral for a rat with lots of tears and remembrances.

Some may not believe as I do and that is fine. These are my own opinions based on what I have experienced thus far in my life.

In the western culture we have a tendency to hide the sick, dying, and aged. We chose not to experience the full scope of what does happen. We deny it because we fear it.

When we embrace the natural cycles that our bodies go into, face it, we gain control of our fears.

`My Father's Headstone

As a Pagan,  I view death differently then the Mundanes (normals, non-Pagans) do.



When my Father passed away, I did experience pain, but I had to be the strong one in my family. I was a senior in high school and a former drop out, I almost didn't graduate.Going to the funeral was very surreal to me.

This will get morbid...

The body that is presented is not the person that was living. There is no life left. The body is cleaned of all it's natural fluids to be replaced by artificial fluids that will preserve the body. The body is then decked out in it's finest apparel and make-up added to make it look healthy and placed in a box that will prevent any decay.

And I realized all this at my Father's funeral...very surreal!

We pretty up the bodies, not for the deceased, but for the viewers, mourners. To hide the truth of what is or isn't in the casket. It is simply a shell. The body. Not the Spirit or Soul of the deceased, but the empty dwelling place of what spark of life there had been. Yes there is an essence of the person around the body but they are no longer there. And we fear that emptiness.

After we had the funeral and the get together-dinner thing...way after everyone had left and/or gone to bed I stayed up. I went outside, sat on the front steps, and cried...but I wasn't alone...My Dad was there.

And we talked...and we laughed...and I cried...

That was when I realized that it is ok to celebrate the life not mourn the lose.

Blessings and Love, Faye

P.S. Mamma is doing alot better today! :-)