Pajaronian Column for Oct. 31, 2025
by Rev. John Song of Watsonville First United Methodist Church
Unwelcomed visitor at our Dia de los Muertos Service on Oct. 26th
Halloween is upon us. So is the celebration of Día de los Muertos / The Day of the Dead in our community with Mexican descent by gathering around the gravesite to honor and remember the dead. They acquaint themselves with the reality of death as part of the fabric of life. It is a time when the veils between the worlds are porous. In this meeting place of “between” the world, the living and the dead meet to celebrate the mysterious and magical meeting place of the living and the dead. The Christian belief in the “Communion of Saints” is an acknowledgment of the reality of the living communing with the ancestors.
The Hebrew scripture reminds us in Ecclesiastes 7:2, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.”
When you think about death, is it with reflection, curiosity, and ease? Or is it with trepidation and fear? Do you even contemplate this most significant passage of your life?
Facing death is our last important life initiation in earthly life. Although our culture associates death with fear, tragedy, and loss, and sees it as something to dread, we can choose to view it differently. We can explore our relationship with death as something that might even feel like some kind of wonder.
What if death were approached as a joyful transition of the soul’s journey of how birth, life, and death are all parts of our soul’s experience of being human.
One of the enduring characters in the West that people associate with Halloween is the Grim Reaper—usually a skeletal figure, who is often shrouded in a dark, hooded robe and carrying a scythe to “reap” human souls. People dread the Grim Reaper because when he shows up, he is to collect that person’s soul.
I see the Grim Reaper as a figure who reminds us that our lives are finite. The 19th century Chief Crowfoot who died during the Blackfoot Crossing in Canada, shared these words of wisdom: “What is life? It is a flash of firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.” Plato’s famous final lesson to his disciples, given just before his own death was “Practice dying.”
It’s human to feel invincible to time. We think death only happens to others. We constantly over estimate how much time we have in life. Yet in the end, we’re all dead. This is a shared human reality: death and taxes.
If our lives are finite, here is a question everyone should be asking: “What have I not done that I know I must before I depart?” That might be making your Living Trust, making amends with people you have wronged, making that trip you always wanted, making that phone call to a person you have put off, or writing a letter. The list goes on.
Someone once said, “Show me your calendar, and I can tell you what you most value in life.” Is there any reshuffling of priorities that you need to make with the limited time you have here on earth? What if you live each day as if it’s your last? That would mean not putting off what matters until all other boxes are checked. I’ll get to it when… I’ll make time for that after… I’ll be happy when… These are reasonings that regrets are made of.
And one would do well to accept, grieve and use this reality as fuel for living a deeply, meaningful and satisfying existence. Mary Oliver says in her exquisite poem, “The Summer Day”, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Take a Risk
Have that tough conversation
Ask for what you want
Start that project (you know the one)
Do something kind
Make something delicious and share it
Spend time with people who matter to you
Learn something new
Walk in nature (without the AirPods)
Meditate, pray, dance your emotions
Rest from ceaseless striving
Love yourself, accept yourself, if you dare!
What have you come here to DO? What have you come here to BE? Create what you came to create, before it’s too late.
John
