The Cycle of Life and Death

We are one with the changing seasons
and endless ebb and flow of the tides

I have just been watching BBC One's spectacular documentary 'The Great Salmon Run' the second in the series 'Nature's Great Events', narrated by world renowned natural history film-maker, Sir David Attenborough. Over five decades Sir David has taken us on amazing adventures into the natural world that have enthralled and educated us. This particular documentary illustrated in the most beautiful and dramatic way how all of nature is interlinked, interdependent as it travels together on the ever constant cycle of life and death, which we, of course, are a part of..


Yesterday was the March Equinox. Autumn is here and parts of the North Island have certainly 
been taking a beating weather-wise with floods in Northland and gales in Taupo and Taranaki.
Having been through a devastating flood in the South Island years ago, my heart goes out to those now having to clean-up and cope with the lasting results of nature's fury.


Life and death - like our taxes are certainties we cannot avoid. From the moment we are born we are on the journey towards death - not something we really want to think about is it? My beloved Chris had Cystic Fibrosis and people would say "But that's terminal isn't it? How awful!" Chris would smile and say "Well I have news for you - Life's pretty terminal too."


That's why we shouldn't waste a moment of the life we are given to live. Isaac Asimov the Russian American author and professor of biochemistry, said "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."


As I watched the documentary on the Pacific salmon returning to their birthplaces in the rivers of the West Coast of America and Canada to spawn, this evening, I reflected on the life and death cycle. 


The salmon face overwhelming challenges to reach their birthplace. Many fail as they are eaten by the bears, the eagles, the whales or other such predators or just die from exhaustion. However, their deaths provide food for their predators and their decaying bodies provide essential nutrients that feed the forests and so life continues.

Rodney Murphy's words came to mind and ones I have used many times in a Life Celebration Ceremony -

'In the presence of death we stand awkward, and ill at ease;
For death is a well-known stranger whom we recognise, but do not wish to know;
But death is not a thing in itself, but a stage in the journey of life, through which all must pass.
It may come swiftly and catch us unawares, or slowly with leaden feet; but death comes to all who live, and in so doing heightens the understanding of the one we know.'

Death is never easy. It can devastate those of us who are left behind to carry on. Grief can all but destroy us if we allow it to. Each death leaves a hole nothing can fill - a wound that cannot be seen. Yet, if we allow ourselves to take the journey into grief we can learn to live again.

I have found that it's all about letting go.

As we enter Autumn I find myself reading this poem by Nancy Woods a great deal -

You shall ask

What good are dead leaves,

and I will tell you, they nourish the sore earth

You shall ask what reason is there for winter

And I will tell you to bring about new leaves

You shall ask why are the leaves so green

And I will tell you because

they are rich with life

You shall ask why must summer end

And I will tell you so that

the leaves can die.

As the salmon die to bring rebirth and nourishment, so the leaves nourish the earth and when we die we live on in those we leave behind because love doesn't die, people do. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said "If we choose to love, we must also have the courage to grieve. From our grief can come growth."

         ‘Love is not changed by death. And nothing is lost.

                  And all in the end is harvest.’ Edith Sitwell