Waiting to die

At this station take some time out to think about waiting and death.

The Colour of Death

In Asian culture the colour of death is white, people wear white to funerals and not black. What is the colour you associate with death? Cut a piece of fabric from the station and use it to help you focus your thoughts, then read the below meditation slowly. Take the piece of fabric home as a reminder.

Waiting to die

Have you ever sat and waited for someone to die?
Waited longing for the moment to come quickly?
Or waited hoping that it would never arrive?

We are all waiting to die.
Some wait knowing that they have cancer, or HIV or another terminal disease,
living in the face of death with every day that passes.
Others wait as if death will never come to them, as if tomorrow never dies,
but they too are simply waiting to die.

Some wait not wanting to die.
Perhaps out of fear of what lies beyond,
fear of leaving so much behind,
with dreams unfulfilled, so little achieved.

Some die, not wanting to wait.
They cannot wait, they cannot bear the pain any longer,
they cannot wait to die.

One thing is certain,
we are all going to die.
So the question is,
how are we going to wait?

In faith or in fear?
Hopeful or hopeless?
Feeling grateful or feeling cheated?
Aware of being loved or feeling rejected?
Seeing beauty or seeing despair?
The question is,
how are we going to wait?

The Waiting

2/10/84 by Linda Contento Schmidt

Prune-like
only
resembling something sweeter.
Years
eroded into deep crevices
indicating where smiles have danced.
A road map of wisdom.
Knowing much
Saying little.
Reduced to a spectator.
All given
Not enough returned.
Tired now and sad.
Remembering much
of youthful years,
only wisps of this morning.
Caring still
Too old to make a difference.
Alive
but not living...
Nothing left
only
the waiting.