The humbling silence

Sunset at Azambujeira beach, Portugal

Today I went to a funeral of a grandmother of a couple of friends. The lady was in her eighties and had been loosing her strength for a few years. I barely knew her but regardless of the degree of closeness or surprise of one's loss, moments like this always make me stop and wonder about the unanswered questions of life. And although some of us live our lives in denial of the harsh truth, of our time limited existence, at one point or another we'll have to confront the reality of ceasing to be... at least in this reality or who knows forever more.

As I stood in the crowd, the priest's words faded into the distance while uncomfortable questions scrolled through my mind. What is the purpose of life? Why going through the trouble of getting born to end up like this? Is this really the end? Who and what the heck am I?

For as pointless as this exercise seemed at the time, to ask seemingly unanswerable questions, seeking to understand myself has got to be one of the most grounding experiences ever. As the inner silence fails to eco an answer, the dawning realisation of one's self-ignorance can be as humbling and as liberating as the answers themselves.

R.I.P. Maria