Death and hiking

I know that's a weird title, but it's descriptive of the two topics I had in mind for this post. My pet mouse Delta just died, a fact which most people might find a bit sad, but on the whole utterly trivial. In a way, it's as trivial as all death. Vast numbers of creatures of all sizes are dying every single second. How significant is one more? Still my wife and I were very attached to the little girl, and we were quite sad to see her go. It's interesting to compare the life of a mouse with the life of a dog, a human, or even a car. It's easier to observe the overall arc of life in a mouse because it does happen so quickly. In all cases we start accumulating various problems which don't quite fix themselves, and after a while they become catastrophic enough that our body ceases to function. It's the natural arc of life in which every creature is embedded. My Buddhist training tells me that when a tragedy happens, like the death of a loved one, to use it to further my own practice. I think to myself that I am no different in nature from the one who died, and I will eventually die, though I don't know when. It could be that I won't see tomorrow. Realizing this, I am spurred by the short time I have left to make the most of every moment.

Speaking of running short on time, I'm about to leave on a 4.5 day hiking trip. It should be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, that means I have to end this blog post rather abruptly....