MEDITATION Elaine Kennedy shares her thoughts

We humans have an incredible diversity. How clever we are and inventing and discovering; how ingenious we are in applying our discoveries to our daily lives. From the wheel to the internet, and beyond, we have seized on our developments for power and control over our destinies.

Yet, unanimously our destiny is the same. We are all brought to the same final edge by the grim reaper. Whether we are Einstein or not Einstein, we have no control over our ultimate limits. Our fear of the unknown edge grips us all. What happens over that final edge?

Attending a funeral of an old lady recently, I was struck yet again by the simplicity of the whole process. Fear always needs complications and institutionalised ritual to make it acceptable. Ceremony is a necessary balm for our uneasy souls. For whom our we uneasy, our dearly departed or ourselves?

Seeing this lovely old lady in the chapel of rest had a profoundly thought-provoking effect on me. In her stillness and peace; her rugged life-worn hands perfectly still, was a deep peace after a life which had deeply touched her loved ones, whose sorrow was a witness to a life-time unknown to me.

Something struck me then, a strong feeling of nearness. Because we feel unhappy at separation, we talk about our dearly departed as if the were thousands of miles across an inaccessible abyss. Gone over some unknown edge into deep space. Yet, looking at that beautiful old lady made me aware that it’s nothing of the sort. It’s just a short step on though a thin veil.

We are so limited as humans in our sense of dimensions. We measure everything in relation to time, distance, speech and other communications. Even highly acclaimed genetic findings recently are really all about the perimeters of time zones and the limitations which create the outside edge of our being and understanding. There must be many other dimensions after death which we cannot begin to understand, so we apply our known concepts to death, those we understand as humans. Obviously that is were we flounder. We cannot adapt dimensions of human relationships with the after-life. They are not compatible. So our fear lies in this inability to make this side of the edge and the other side add up. We will have to wait our turn in order to experience these other dimensions, just as an unborn baby has no concept of the world beyond the edge of the womb, but finds out in his own unique way as he travels the road of discovery.

Christ had to take on human form - why? Because he was something else beyond our recognisable concepts. His incarnation gives us a huge and fascinating clue of things to come. Not a lot, but just enough to keep up the interest!

My husband’s philosophy is : ‘Whatever happens next, it cant be disappointing.’ Looking at the old lady in her coffin, I had an overwhelming feeling that he is right. That whatever it is that’s over that final edge, it’s O.K.!