Going Into the Good Night...

What is this occurrence? 

The blossoms of early spring just faded

and newly shaped fruits have begun 

to take form.

Soon  round, red, delightful

apples

will be plucked or dropped from the branch.

Eventually...

fruit decays.

Seeds take hold.

Winter snows atop the soil.

Spring will sprout

once more.

There is hope in this cycle;

the eternal pattern of repetition.

And  our lives,

are as the apple tree.

One earthly season

of birth to decay,

to rise again

from the seed of our

mortality,

and 

to live

forever more.

Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.  ~John Muir

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?  

~Kahlil Gibran

Ps. 107: 10, 14

  Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;

      •  •  •

  He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.

Mosiah 15: 7-9, 20, 23

  Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.

  And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men—

   Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.

      •  •  •

   But behold, the bands of death shall be broken, and the Son reigneth, and hath power over the dead; therefore, he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead.

      •  •  •

  They are raised to dwell with God who has redeemed them; thus they have eternal life through Christ, who has broken the bands of death.

What is this thing that men call death,

This quiet passing in the night?

'Tis not the end, but genesis

Of better worlds and greater light.

O God, touch thou my aching heart,

And calm my troubled, haunting fears.

Let hope and faith, transcendent, pure,

Give strength and peace beyond my tears.

There is no death, but only change,

With recompense for vict'ry won.

The gift of him who loved all men,

The Son of God, the Holy One.

'What Is This Thing That Men Call Death'

By President Gordon B. Hinckley