A Love Letter

by June Jacobson

Stephen Jenkinson, author of Die Wise, spoke at the Death:OK Conference recently, and alluded that people investing in a wilder land and culture are writing “love letters to the earth”. As much as I like to think that I’m good at writing love letters to the earth on a daily basis, they’re really more like short, sweet notes. A couple examples:

 (In Gosling tone)
“Hey bears. I know how much you love that apple tree down by the garden at Camp Trackers. I’ll leave most of the apples for you and I hope you don’t mind if I show the kids what a good climber you are, and the impressive size of your poop and paws?”

AND...

"Hey Yard. I know some people will look at you and think you're not tidy enough. But I see the critters that survive the winter in that jungle and am happy you're a wild place right now. I hope you don't mind that I cull a few specific plants now and then. I think my reasons are sound, but we'll see what you think in the years to come. I'll be paying attention."
 

Love notes straight from the heart. Full of good intention for a loving relationship. But the longer love letter I’m crafting until the day I die is a bit more intimate, and if I’m lucky, one day that letter will be wrapped in a "woolen envelope” and delivered into the ground.

By "love letter", I mean my cold, dead body, and by "woolen envelope”, I mean a shroud like blanket made of wool my sheep grew, I spun and then wove. Maybe the sheep will even graze in the meadow where I'm buried...just maybe.

I’m no expert on death, but from what I understand, we all die, we all become part of the earth again(although it takes a long *@#!*%$ time the way people are doing it these days), and we all become food for something else in the process. Our death is a gift to an infinite number of lives.

When it sunk in that my death was not just be about me anymore, in fact never was, I was left with new perspective and a ton of questions. If you feel a similar way, you’re not alone. I just attended a conference with 500 people in this region mulling over the same questions. Death is something that happens to every living thing on the planet and it’s totally worth talking about. Start with the ones you love?

Jenkinson closed by reminding us that Death is probably the most reliable companion we can ever have in this life, so we may as well get to know it and see what it has to teach us about living. So, why not build on that lifelong relationship and let it remind us to be grateful we’re still moving aroundn on this troubled but beautiful earth another day?

Cool, well, enjoy the season! Things are dying all around us every day. I feel all sorts of ways about it and have a letter to write.