We talk alot about death here. It always seems natural and its never erie. It just seems to come up alot or at least I don't hear others talking about it much. Anyways, it always winds up with death is fine b/c we leave this earth but we get to live with Heavenly Father. We've talked about our "boo boos" going away when we live with Heavenly Father again. Anyways, today Douglas was telling one of his many random stories. I didn't catch it all. He started by talking about birds, helicopters, and things he's seen with grandma and something about them seeing Heavenly father (maybe b/c they are up high, I don't know.) Like I said, I didn't catch the gist of his story. Anyways, he then said, "I don't want to die." I said, "Okay, then don't." Smart answer, right? :-) I thought that I better give a better response so I said, "I don't want to die either b/c I don't want to leave you, Harrison or Daddy, but if I did die, it would be just fine b/c I would be with Heavenly Father and I could see my Daddy again b/c he died and lives with Heavenly Father. It would be a great thing to see him again." Douglas knows that my dad died and is all better and lives with Heavenly Father. How much of that he understands, I don't know. Anyway, he muttered some stuff I didn't understand. (We were in the car and the radio was on low.) But then he said something like "Okay, I'll watch the house while you go see Heavenly Father." I just laughed. If only it was that easy, to simply visit Heavenly Father but be able to come back here again. Well, at least I know my house would be in good hands should I need to see Heavenly Father. :-)
On a more serious note, I quickly thought about how much we do talk about death, which is probably once every other month. And like I said, it comes up naturally. It doesn't feel weird at all. Well, the question crossed my mind as to why and quickly with no hesitation I thought "to prepare". And then my mind kind of froze and thought, "prepare him for someone's death?" "Someone close to him." I'm not worried about it but it was cause for a little concern at the moment. :-)
Monday, July 12, 2010
Death
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6 comments:
we tend to have a lot of conversations like this too! Sometimes I think we'll freak people overhearing us out, but really it is a natural result of being open with your kids. Anytime Lily does something dangerous Madilynn tells her "Stop, or you'll die and go to Jesus!" Sounds like some revival church and makes me laugh every time! :)
We talk about it every so often as well. Since Jeff's dad died in February Will often asks about Grandpa. He's much younger than Douglas of course so he probably doesn't even come close to grasping it. We didn't prepare him beforehand as we weren't totally prepared ourselves.
Just today in fact he asked where grandpa was and I said with Heavenly Father and Jesus. He said "No, mom. He's sleeping" after which he began to snore.
My niece seems to think we can just go pick grandpa up from the temple (since it's Heavenly Father and Jesus's house). It's amazing how their little minds work.
You are so morbid! If you die before I can make it back there I will personally come over to the other side and ring your neck! (I'm just saying).
Ha ha becky! Thats what I was worried people would think. Its not morbid at all. It comes up all by itself and in a natural way and we talk about the positive part.
Speaking of morbid...my grandpa passed away when Callie was three. He lived on a ranch in a rural part of Nevada. Because of the isolated nature of the place, and his rugged lifestyle, his funeral was very old fashioned, ie, the pallbearers had to lower the casket into the ground with ropes and then fill the hole using shovels. As my husband was a pall bearer, and we were in the same car, Callie witnessed the actual lowering and burial. I tried to distract her, but failed. For months after that, she would play funeral, lying absolutely still for 5 to 10 minutes at a time, in a hole, with quarters on her closed eyes, while pretend people shoveled dirt on top of her. She tried to talk me into shoveling the pretend dirt. I refused. I remember praying daily that she would come to peace with death and quit playing that morbid and unsettling game.
I think it's pretty natural to be curious about death as a kid (and adult too). My kids inquire about it also and we talk openly about it. Julia is allergic to peanuts and she always talks about how she'll be able to finally eat a PB-J sandwich in heaven....too funny! But, it's good...faith of a child in the afterlife! (...that's a good thing!...) Kelly S.
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