There are no words

Words alone cannot comfort those who are dying or those who have suffered great loss. Words are for those who hope and live on in the expectations of their imagination. Those who can imagine there is a tomorrow.

Like the young they believe they will last forever and the door of death and loss are far from them. Their minds stay one step ahead of this reality, because words cannot explain the painfully barren, hollow, terrifying, empty and cold feeling of it. The mind does not comprehend or handle loss well; it freezes at the thought of “no more”.

You cannot console those who have suffered great loss or are about to die with words. You cannot negotiate for them as you look into their pleading eyes. Your words will have little to no meaning for you and them.

You are both standing at the door of great silence, the place where meditation begins and words do not exist for either of you to convey what you are feeling. There are no words for such loss, it is the gateway into the heart of reality and words can only bring empty comfort.

All you can do is die with them, comfort them with a smile or touch and share the loss. Let the emptiness fill you with wonder and the realizations that come from those who perceive how fragile and fleeting life is. See the moments of their lives captured within the pictures they have all around them and marvel at the thought that soon they too will be gone, just like those moments. Great loss brings great humility, but it also reveals to us the well of awareness that we possess within us.