Walking to Akaka Falls

yesterday, I encountered a woman (Barbara) who was struggling with the steepness of the path. She was huffing and puffing, and had stopped to catch her breath while her party continued on without her. I paused to say hello and to give her a little encouragement. Barbara said she thought she was about to have a coronary attack and I told her, "no, just go slowly and stop when you need. There is much more to be seen if you take the way slower." She then remarked what a perfect place it would be to die in and I agreed, it is like the Garden of Paradise. Then Barbara told me that when she died, she wanted to be cremated and to have her ashes sprinkled into the wind, in just such a place as where we found ourselves yesterday. She says she wants to become a cloud, pointing to the sky and the fluffy clouds that were passing by. Then, her loved ones would be able to say, "look, there goes Barbara".

And so....later that day, in a highland meadow, feeling the wind ruffle through my hair, wondering whose voice it carried to me, and again gazing at the clouds, I considered, what a perfect day it would be to die .................. isn't it odd that when life seems the most rich and the most full, that we consider our deaths? I consider that I live well in order to die well. It was then that I saw the owl, gliding over the field and into the forest. (yes, owls are active during daylight hours, too, here)

Death apparently has passed me by for another day and another place.

PS - I just read Steven Barnes' post from Friday and he mentions, too, living well in order to die well - seems that Barbara and I are not the only ones! (http://darkush.blogspot.com/)