Stung by the Death of My Brother and the Comforting Balm of Spirit

This past Monday, I received a morning phone call one never wants to get. My sister called to let me know that one of our younger brothers, Craig Trapp, had made his transition. 

Although I know that death is a part of the life process, and I have officiated my fair share of celebration of life services, I nonetheless experienced the sting of the crucifixion of my brother’s passing. Craig, with all his foibles, was a unique soul whose absence leaves an unfillable void on the planet. 

I am sometimes asked what happens when someone goes through the experience we call death. Many have said that death is simply the separation of a soul from a particular body. The ancients defined “dead” as “not here, present in another place”.

Although my brother is no longer physically present, he lives and is now present in another of God’s “many mansions.” Craig’s life and the lives of anyone we know who has made the transition continue in a way we will one day understand.

Certainly no one on this side of the veil we call death can adequately describe the death experience. But one writer, Kahlil Gibran, brings comfort to me and to many others with these words, “On Death,” from his book The Prophet. 

Then Almitra spoke, saying, We would ask now of Death.

And he said:

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night – bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountaintop, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

I will miss my brother, but I know that he will live as an angel on my shoulder. He is watching over me, protecting me, and sending me all manner of good. So, I do not say goodbye to you, Craig Bernard Trapp. Instead, I say, “Godspeed on your way.”

As God's grace abides in us all, I remember that we are always one in Spirit. I love you, Craig, and I bless you as you move on to new experiences in God’s expression of eternal life.

Peace and Blessings,

James