Cycles, Day 179

How do you explain death to a five year old? I found the sex talk so far to be quite easy and straight forward...there are numerous age appropriate books on the subject. But death...?

Nicolai talks about death quite frequently. I think this is a fairly common occurrence for young boys. He has expressed interest in being mummified when he dies since he knows all about the process and the spiritual aspects as well. But his big question is what will happen to all his toys when he is gone? I jokingly told him that he could build a large tomb and they could be waiting for him in the afterlife. Since it worked for King Tut, my answer satisfied his question. I was thinking the other day a big portion of religion (pick one, any one) has some kind of explanation about what happens when a person dies. If I subscribed to a particular one I think the conversation would be much easier.

A new day, Day 165

I was treated to the most spectacular sunrise in Denver this morning while riding the Lightrail to work. I was amazed that the people sitting around me on the train were too busy texting, sleeping, or listening to their ipods to notice the sky in all its glory. I felt totally blessed by witnessing these fleeting moments and somehow I managed to hold on to this sense of peace as the day progressed. Once I got to work the harddrive on my laptop crashed. Then I discovered that the film developer was contaminated and ruined many rolls of my students' film. But I still managed to hold onto my serenity with this sunrise on my mind. The day gradually progressed and I fixed the chemical issues, extended the assignment, and came to terms that my harddrive is indeed dead and gone. It was my own fault that the grant I worked on for many many hours is lost forever...but honestly it's ok. The day could have been much worse by stressing out instead of just letting it all go.