“Mum, at what age do you make a will?”
It’s quite a tricky question to answer are the best of times but try a Tuesday morning when you are just awake and you are pre-occuupied with preparing the school lunch and getting ready for the working day ahead! This was the question my eight year old son asked me last Tuesday wide-eyed and innocent. I think he believed that there was an age that you are required to make a will in much the same way as when you are 18 you are legally allowed to vote.
It may sound like a negative question but the innocence of childhood allows one to see death in a different light. Children can be very matter-of-fact about “delicate” issues that adults often try to skirt around. I believe we have a lot to learn from children on so many levels as they often have the ability to clearly see things as they are.
The cycle of life is quite simple, we are born, we live and then we die. The freedom of being comfortable with our own mortality allows us to really live, to engage fully with life. Ironically, many of us search for certainty in areas of life where this cannot be provided. By contrast, death is a certainty and once this is accepted and embraced with courage and love it gives us the freedom to live.
Have a good week and enjoy each and every precious moment by being fully “awake” to all life offers you.