Doodling the Dead

Face Up * The Art of Recognition • "Doodling the Dead #9" by Dar Freeland"

images & text © 2012 Dar Freeland | all rights reserved

In the passing of our loved ones, we eventually celebrate the life they had woven, the joy they had brought, and we dance in the memory of their humor, their love and even their failings. How is it that we wait until one is gone, before we learn to forgive? Is it easier without a body to relate to? Are we so afraid to lose their love in the relating, that we'd rather wait to find healing, until they are not there?

Does forgiveness know the difference? 

Do we sit and talk to the departed, as if they are still there? Why didn't we say those things when they occupied their body? Because they had a mouth to talk back? Because they had an opinion that we don't think they have now - just without a voice that speaks out loud? 

Sometimes the ONLY thing that remains after our loved ones have dropped their body, is their opinion.

Likewise - in metaphor, what in our lives now are asking to be shed? Which old patterns, beliefs, ways of being, or points of view are presenting themselves to be released? Are our issues, dramas, perceived pains and inner stories really worth hanging onto? In doodling the dead...the "dead" could perhaps be our "departed loved one"...the old way of doing things. 

Sometimes shedding asks to happen, even when we don't like it.

Forgiveness, acceptance and allowance and mostly integrity - are all the tools we need to engage with our loved ones while they are alive, in the most peaceful way. What if we cultivated these traits in order to share a more rich, juicy and loving relationship with those around us now, rather than playing it safe and waiting until they are gone?

-- dar freeland

faceupstudio.com