A Life Well Lived.

(Write a story that begins and ends with someone looking up at the stars.)

A life well lived! Isn’t it what we all hope for? Our definition of well lived will vary from person to person, a thousand people, a thousand answers or ideas! So perhaps it will all sift down to if you feel ready, are you content to go on to the next stage or the final stage or whatever your beliefs allow or instruct you to believe. Will your final moments be met with grace and gentleness or will you resist and realize you really aren’t ready to say your life was well lived! Will you have misgivings and second thoughts?  

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The old woman finds it harder and harder to make the climb up the bluff. In years passed, she has always gone to the very top to experience the heavens, to visit the stars, but now she is limited by loss of strength. She has found a ledge half way up to the top to spread her blanket and it serves her purpose nicely. She goes each night to look at the stars overhead, to sing with the stars, she waits for a message, a sign or an invitation. She hums one of her favorite melodies as she climbs, hums and sings as she sits for hours with the stars her only company.

You might think it might be a native chant or something from the East, a formal chant or mantra but it is current music, modern music but it has haunted her since she first knew in her heart her days were coming to an end and the words were so telling. She feels the music will ease her way, smooth the transition.

She prepares herself in every way possible. All of the formal papers signed, all decisions made, with these things done, it frees a soul to leave the earth under it’s own terms. It is a refreshing freedom, no more decisions or explanations.

She doesn’t know all of the words to her songs but certain lines resonate with her. God, she loves the music even if the lines tell of her future. So she sits looking up at the stars, she hums and sings the few lines she knows. She is not begging for a respite, she is not asking for a second chance, she is satisfied! Can you imagine? If she feels satisfaction, then hers must have been a life well lived!

Her whole purpose is to offer to share her music with the stars, she hopes to bond with the heavenly bodies, to be accepted, so as it happens she is already there, in the heavens, to watch it all happening or the inevitable unfolding.

As the stars twinkle out and the sun begins to dominate the sky, the old woman goes down. She will rest now to prepare herself for tonight and every night until there is no further need.

As she eats a light meal and sleeps in her chair, the music continues.

“When my body won’t hold me anymore and my lips give their last, kiss goodbye”  

“Will I be ready?”

“When I lay down my dreams, my hopes and my doubts, the rings on my fingers, the keys to my house”  

“Will my hand be steady?”  * Avett Brothers, “No Hard Feelings” 

The song is so telling and true. She sings it so often she cannot remove it from her mind. She knows it is a sign! It is meant for her, she believes this in her heart.

Exhaustion and peace flood her mind and body but the song continues!

The next night and the next night find her there with the stars, with the music!

She begins to imagine she can hear the music in the sky, like soft strings, violin and cello playing the music she hums.  

It is working, the stars have found her music worthy and she hopes she is worthy too.  

Her daily life is mundane now, she cares little for material things and her family and friends seem to have given up on her as the years pile on and her usefulness ends. It would be funny really, if it weren’t so tragic, to have lived ones life mostly for others but in the end no one can walk that path but you. No one can walk the path with you or for you. It is sobering but honest, it is stark and yet beautiful.

“And if you go, no one may follow“

“That path is meant for your steps alone ! “ ** Grateful Dead, “Ripple”

Yes, more music. I feel the emotion build, but it is not fear but rather anticipation of peace at last.

Waking in the late afternoon, the old woman goes from room to room, straightening and tidying everything. She may not be coming back so she must be ready.  

In the center of her table, the cremains box waits, handcrafted by a friend and engraved with words she wrote. Powerful words she remembers from Beowulf.

She can see it so clearly in her mind!

Her soul, her essence, her spark rising with the smoke.

“And heaven swallowed the smoke!” *** as written in Beowulf!

And now all is in readiness! She feels free of all restraints. There is no jealousy or hate, no envy or bitterness, there is just peace and acceptance.

Climbing the bluff this night she somehow knows this will be her last night to sing with the stars. She is careful with her blanket, she adjusts her clothing and she sits staring at the stars twinkling overhead. The stars are so beautiful! And the heavens are full of her music!  

She gazes fondly at the constellations, she watches the moon in its arc across the sky, she sings her music.  

It is all such a miracle to be so ready! The old woman wonders what it will be like up there, in the heavens, when the smoke comes.

The music becomes quieter! The melodies drift on the night wind until the only voice is hers and she hums the melody and sings the words.