Getting To The End of It

by Hugh Singleton

            If we live to the natural end of our lives, we may well find ourselves confronted by questions that challenge our knowledge, our experience, and even our faith.  If we find satisfactory answers, we are blessed indeed and the satisfaction we feel leads us to share  our  enlightenment with friends and associates, most  or perhaps all

of whom find our views too different from their own to seriously consider.  Built into the answers we cherish is a caution that we must not ignore; that the answers we so cherish are not the only answers, and that we are not to challenge what others have found to satisfy their needs.  Herein lies much of the world’s problems.

            I refer here to the question of what causes the events in our lives; are we blessed or cursed by what we do or fail to do, and why can’t we change our lives to avoid all unpleasantness?  Does prayer really work and if so, why do our prayers go unanswered?  If our thinking is wrong, how do we correct it?  Philosophers have for centuries offered their theories of life and death and the meaning of both.  Man seems to have picked and chosen from what these wise men have said, yet life remains a mystery for most.  My personal feeling as I approach the end of my life is that each of us are different and each life will differ from every other life, including how it begins and how it ends.

            Much of mankind, perhaps most of mankind, has accepted that invisible forces surround us.  Some feel that these forces are divine in nature and exist to sustain us, protect us, and guard us from harm as we go through life and return safely to a world of spirit.  Others are certain that these forces are entirely natural, a part of the earth’s environment  which have no connection with spirit, or good, or evil. Until we learn to communicate with or  become conscious of these unseen forces, it is unlikely that we will recognize what they are or why they exist.  I suspect that we are surrounded daily by the actions of unseen influences and I wonder if we could not, simply by trying, become conscious of untold wonders happening  right under our noses, so to speak.  It has been suggested that mental telepathy will be the next major step in  the evolution of man; I believe it might.

            Toward the end of each life, those not already immersed in a faith will naturally wonder what will happen at the moment of death.  Researchers will read about  near death experiences of those who seem to have physically died and then are revived to live out their lives.  Other researchers, using some form of regression report in great detail of a spiritual existence between incarnations on earth or some other place.  In short, there is much to give us hope for life after death. 

copyright 2014, Hugh Singleton

Hugh Singleton was born 1931 in Cuthbert, a small agricultural town in southwest central Georgia.  The Singletons date back to the pre-civil war days, with older roots  paternal roots go back to England; maternal to Ireland.  Hugh’s higher education consists of business school training in accounting and administration.  He served four years in the U.S. Navy, 1951-1955.  Hugh  enjoyed a career with the NCR Corporation and retired at the end of 1993.  Hugh and his wife  live in a retirement community near Leesburg, FL where they enjoy a number of activities.