Late Night...

Well, another week of doing graveyard shifts. Yikes! No fun at all. I actually dont mind the shift itself, its one of my favorite shifts, particularly cause its so quiet and I can get other things done, plus I get to talk with a coworker and thats nice. However, sometimes it can get a little crazy! Lately we have had a few residents begin to decline...a very sad thing. We make friends with the residents and most times they become part of the norm. Its hard sometimes to remember that the reason they are here is to help them shift from the season of their lives where they were full and active, most were or are married, have kids...to kind of a waiting period, where they are still stuck in this mortal state, but are declining physically, mentally, and emotionally. Its made me realize one important thing, when I get old, no meds for me besides pain meds to make it easier for me to go. I dont want to prolong my mortal probation any more than I need to. For most people, their own mortality is their biggest enemy. Many socialogists and public health worry about people in the young adult and teenage group because we often have yet to face the facts of mortality. So we take risks, jump out of planes, drive 100mph, binge drink, because we often dont understand the consequences. As we grow older, we face death more times than we would probably like to imagine. We face the death of friends we grew up with, often because of reckless behaviors. We begin to lose grandparents, parents, friends. I wonder often if thats why as we grow older, many of us begin to grow wiser. We begin to see and understand whats really important, and so we have little time for making or dealing with drama, because we understand that no day is guaranteed to us, tomorrow is never promised. Yet what scares us so much about our own mortality? Is it the thought of not being remembered? Of not leaving some kind of fingerprint on the world that future generations can remember us some how by? Or is it the somewhat uncertainty of what the eternity holds? For many, religion fills that void. So that when death comes upon us, we learn instead to feel joy for the departed despite our grief, because we know and understand that they are in a better place. I like to focus on the plan of salvation. To remember the promises of God but to go beyond just what God has in store for us, but to realize that our fingerprints on others dont just die out when we leave this frail existence of mortality. Our brothers and sisters will remember it clear into the eternities. No one forgets, forgive yes, but the good things we do for each other will be remembered...even beyond the veil. So then mortality is not a thing to be feared, but celebrated. Knowing that each day we make count, each day we choose to do some good for another, is a day that will live on with us and with them. How glorious the gospel, How glorious the truths of the Lord.