Facing Death

When death came knocking at my door, I asked, "Who is it?"

Death answered, "Don't you know me?"

I said, "No, not at all." 

Death asked, "What do you know then?"

To which I said, "I know myself, and I know the world I live in. My name is Sheila. I work at a bank, I am 55 years old, what should I tell you, it is a long story, what do you want to know?"

Death answered, "The story you are telling me is now in the past, it was transient. In a moment, it will all be forgotten, wiped out, like it never existed. Do you know anything about what happens next?"

I replied, "How does one know death and what follows next?"

To which Death replied, "You spent your life chasing something that's now coming to it's end. What did you achieve?"

"Did you ever experience real peace?

Did you know joy that does not depend on anything?"

"Did you experience unconditional love? Did you ever fully surrender to innocent moments of life, at any time?"

"For if you had such experiences, I wouldn't be a stranger to you. As life and death is one, and cannot be separated from each other. Since you never connected with life, you don't know death either"

"You just lived an illusion of life and for you death is the fatal end of all you called life.  As you don't know the interconnection between life and death, so you also do not understand the continuity of life through death..."