LIFE NOT DEATH - Les Dyer

This week a beloved brother and, for over ten years’ loyal Heartland supporter and staffer, Peter Hill, passed over following a massive brain hemorrhage.
It was a sudden, surprising and saddening day for all of us. He will be remembered with great affection and enduring love.

His passing jolted Trudi and I out of our ordinariness; and caused us to re-consider the personal meaning of life.
What does ‘life’ mean to you?
For some I know it’s a sentence of ‘hard labour’ to be endured until it’s over.
For others it seems to be a relentless challenge to confront and conquer.
And for others it’s treated as a test that must be passed before one can progress further.
And for still others, it’s approached as a case of finding a balance in which the good wins out against the bad.
For many, it’s not a question that’s asked at all…….but rather an unexpected and unplanned experience that must simply be endured: one must make the best of what the moment holds without ever bothering to try to understand who one is or what the moment is really about.
So……what does ‘life’ mean to you?

For myself, it’s a chance to remember who I am.
Every act, every seeming moment, every obstacle, opportunity, gain and loss – every love, hurt, fear, happiness, fulfillment and sadness – is a chance to wake up and realize who I am.
And then to be it. In everything I think and in everything I do in every moment.

Have I got there yet?
No way! Not at all!
But of this I am certain: at my core, my essence is Love. Pure love. Just love.
I have realized this much.
And when I depart this life, it will be with a certainty that that which I am does not crumble with my body.
It does not dissolve with my thoughts.
It does not expire with my unfulfilled dreams and aspirations.
That which I am lives on for ever. Forever.
For that is all that is.
Love is the ground upon which and within which all is.
Its conscious expression is our only purpose.

Peter now knows this well. But he always did. For that is what he expressed in his life.