Row Your Boat Grief Series #6: Life Is But A Dream

“Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream,

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily,

Life is but a dream.”

Where are you located?

No, not where do you live. No, not which country do you reside.

But, where are YOU located? Where under all that epidermis that you think is you is “YOU”?

If you are your body, are you a past model or the current one? What about the third grade version of yourself? Wasn’t that you too?

Are you the grandfather version that your grandchildren know as YOU, or are you the grandchild YOU that sat upon your grandma’s lap?

If you lose a leg, are you still you?

If you lose all your limbs are you still you?

Of course, we are more than our organs, more than our bodies, even more than the three pound piece of meat between our ears.

What your loved one loved about you was not your skin, your body, or your face.

What you loved about them was not merely the flesh suit.

Neither you, nor they, were a body. Your body is an illusion, a lie, it is not real!

What they loved about you went far beyond flesh and bone.

What you loved about them – was their spirit, their essence, their soul.

Bodies are not real. And death is not real. Bodies may die. Souls, however, don’t.

What is real is the love you had, have and always will have for your loved one.

What is real is that their love for you continues on.

What is real is that your souls are forever intertwined.

What is real is that you were together, are still together, and will be together forever.

Someday you’ll see them again. For now you’ll just have to trust and take comfort in knowing they are there.

After all, they always be THEY.

You will always be YOU.

Your love will always be HERE.

So keep on rowing your boat gently and merrily down the stream. And don’t forget THEY are real, YOU are real, your LOVE is real – the rest of it – it’s just a dream.

Carry The Fire,

Rabbi B