Dad sits staring at his hands. Though he'd been unconscious for the better part of a week, he'd been upright since I'd return home two days earlier.
Without looking up he blurts, "I think I'm ready."
How do you know when you're ready?
The Major Prophet George Harrison said, after a bout with Cancer and then being stabbed by an intruder, "Well, when you've been through something like that you ask yourself, 'What would it be like if I left body in an hour? What would I miss?' ... well," he muses, "I have a son and a boy needs a father but ... other than that ... I don't think I'll miss anything."
It isn't to say he, or my Dad, didn't really enjoy life, making the most of it, loving many and getting it back in return but they had come to a point when they were ready for whatever's next.
It's also not to say leaving those they loved was easy.
Dad agonized over it until he finally asked our permission in the Hospital that day. We gave him our blessing and three days later he moved on to whatever's next.
George's wife Olivia describes his passing as a room being lit.
On the other hand, I've witnessed lots of people hang on to life ... refusing to let go ... not saying goodbye ... afraid to lose what they've got because they're terrified of what's next.
These were painful, long and excruciating deaths leaving family and friends traumatized.
What's next?
Is it Heaven or Hell?
Do we get another chance and come back somehow or do the lights simply go out and that's it?
Honestly nobody knows ... though every single one of us believe in one these options.
I take great solace in Dad stunning us as he struggled with the reality he was ready for whatever's next but needed our support.
Never one to mince his words or refuse an opportunity to gain a higher level of consciousness, George Harrison seems as though he couldn't wait to get on with it.
I'm not there yet ... it's taken Sarah and I this whole life to get to where we are so I'm in no hurry ... I'd miss too many and too much if I died right now.
And I'm not worried about whatever's next.
Whatever next is.
