The veil is thin

This time of year is always profound for me. I find that this intersection of the seasons, the time of mid-autumn, is one in which I experience a strong sense of how thin the veil is between life and death. There is something about the sacred time of Samhain, All Saints Day and All Souls Day that calls me to silence and a heightened awareness of how limited our senses are.

Working as a hospital chaplain is a daily reminder of how little we know beyond our five senses, the intellectual constructs of our brains and how we make sense of the world, and how fragile these human bodies are. This is also a time of year when I have experienced a number of personal losses over my lifespan, deaths and otherwise.

Everything around me seems enhanced - music, the weather, the wind, the smell of leaves, my attunement to the emotions of those close to me. I am drawn to be outside, to experience these sensations away from confining walls and fluorescent lights. It's a time when I feel a deep connection to the divine and the natural and super-natural connections that surround all life throughout the universe.

I am deeply grateful for this time of year and for the transparency of the line between life and death, physical and spiritual, sense and sensed.

Blessed be.