Lots of questions. Not a lot of answers.

Death.

It's something that we will all encounter. People, pets, and even plants. All life is impacted by death. To quote the great philosopher, Mufasa from the Lion King, "…we are all connected in the great Circle of Life." And while we all know death is inherently part of the "cycle of life," when we face it head-on, it always stirs up a slew of emotions and brings up questions.

Recently we lost Lisa's dad, Ray. It was our turn to face the specter of death head-on. Since Ray passed unexpectedly and so quickly, the emotions that flooded our family all seemed to come like a tidal wave. Sorrow. Grief. Joy. Pain. Anger. The entire family was up and down, riding these emotional waves by the hour.

For Lisa, her dad's passing brought a mixture of grief: missing her father; joy: remembering all the great times she enjoyed with him, and peace: knowing that he was no longer in pain and had rejoined her mom.

For me, the passing of Lisa's dad brought forth all sorts of unexpected emotions about my own dad's death. It was thirty-five years ago, and yet there were moments this last couple of weeks where I would break into tears of loss and mourning. Then another moment, I would find myself experiencing genuine emotions from when I was six. We were in church – my head in his lap, my little hand in his callous hand, and him stroking my head.

When I lost my dad, he was only 48 and one of the most incredible human beings I knew. His death wasn't fair; I didn't get it. And he knew that. So, a couple of days before he died, he took those same callous hands I was reminiscing about and held my hand. He muttered several seemingly random words (I think he said "…now I lay thee on my mat…"). He then looked at me and asked, "Did that make any sense?" I thought it was the morphine, so I said, "no, pops." He paused and told me that the words he had just uttered were from Moby Dick, his favorite book. And since I hadn't read the book, the words seemed out of context. But, he had read the book (multiple times, in fact), so he knew what they meant, how they fit into a paragraph, a section, a chapter, and – ultimately – the entire book. Knowing the story helped make sense of the senseless.

He explained that our lives are all part of a rich and powerful story from the very beginning of time to the part where we get to the end and meet our Creator. When we finally know the whole story of this universe, all the things that didn't make much sense to us will snap into place, and we'll see how everything fits together.

That little bit of wisdom has guided me through many life events, including various deaths such as Lisa's dad. And while her dad was ninety and lived a full life, his passing still came with emotions and questions – many of which we can't answer right now, and I have to be okay with that. But, once we finish the entire story of life, we'll finally get the answers we ask in times like this.

Thanks for the reminder, dad.