A Gift of Life and Death

A Gift of Life and Death
by Macrina Wiederkehr

I want my death to be a gift, a birth.
When in that final breath
I breathe myself back into God
I want to be drawn into you also,
into the world of stars and earth,
plants and birds and animals,
into the roaring sea.
I want to be an intimate part
of all the universe.
And so, as I am breathed back
into the heart of this world,
into the hopes and dreams
and joys of the people,
into the yearnings
and the tears and sorrows of this world,
my death will be a birth, a gift.

I want my death to be a gift
and the only way my death
can be a gift, is
if my living is a gift
right now, today
in this frantic, confusing, lovely
messy moment in history.

Oh, just to be here visible, and unhidden,
alive with a hope that has no boundaries,
ever aware of the immense goodness,
at my fingertips, within my reach,
receiving and sharing that goodness
midwiving it into being,
tasting the incredible truth, that
every day is a good day for living
and every day is a good day for dying.