So I haven’t been able to sleep lately and one of the things that came to mind last night while not sleeping was Apocalypse Now, namely the scene where one soldier on the boat trip has been killed and a soldier cradles his lost comrade as the corpse on its back in the water, the soldier gently rocking his lost friend back and forth until gently releasing him and the corpse floats for a moment and then disappears under the dark water. The image is reminiscent of the Death of Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais, and I was always taken by the beauty with which the body drifted off to its grave. I was thinking of that while I couldn’t sleep and thinking that there are things in my life that it’s time to let go of. As a new year begins we look to jettison things that we don’t want to carry with us any longer and this image reminds me that the transition can be gentle and beautiful. We may have carried these behaviors or beliefs for a long time, they may have been very valuable to us at one point and now it may be time to let them go. These things were once important to us or we wouldn’t have held them for so long nor held them so dear. Give them a fitting and gentle end as you would a comrade, lover or sister or friend.
Your moment of Zen
