Initiation of the Dead

I have been listening to an audio book in the car - which is an ongoing habit of mine left over from when I traveled long distances in my last job and the one before that. I fell in love with having something wonderful to listen to instead of being bored. Now, of course, I'm just driving across town, but I can still learn a tremendous amount by having audio books available. Currently the book is The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I first read this book many, many years ago at the insistence of my husband's sponsor. He used to leave books in my mail box with notes that said, "You owe me ______." I knew it was to my advantage to read whatever book he left. This particular book was a big deal. Ron and I traveled to Ft. Worth, Texas, in the middle of the night to hear a day long workshop by Don Miguel.

One of the things Don Miguel talks about in the book is how close we all are to death. We manage to forget this fact in our day to day lives, but forgetting it is a big mistake. Enough people have left my life suddenly and without warning for me to know deeply that this is the truth. Don Miguel says the "initiation of the dead" is to take the Angel of Death as our teacher and learn to live each day as if the Angel was only a couple of steps behind us. I believe this is the right way to live because most of the nonsense that I do in a day's time is not what I would be doing if I was really aware. What I would do instead is to love the people in my life.