The sun, the moon and the river

Tired of the sad stories being exchanged by the  family on another first of November, my grandfather left the table and joined us, his grandchildren, telling us to not ever pay attention to grown ups talking about life and death. Since for him the conversations held at the 'grown ups'-table demistified the beautiful mystic of death, while killing life at the same time. Leaving pure boredom to be the only option. The story that he told us, always remained in my mind, and I still follow his advice of not paying attention to grown ups talking about life and death. And every first of November, while sitting at the boring grown-ups table myself, I always return to my childhood and find myself listening with the outmost interest and curiosity to the story my grandfather told us:


"Long time ago, when people were still able to talk to the birds and trees, there were three afterlives: the sun, the moon and the deep rivers of earth. According to your personality and your development of it over life, you were assigned to one of the afterlives. The sun was for the free spirits, the ones not being held down by the ruling ideas in society. The moon was for the wise, the ones that accepted the beauty of nature and lived in peace with it. The deep rivers of earth were for the people who never lived life to the fullest, the ones always worrying about what could happen to them.

Evertyime a free spirit - being it a child, a strong adult or a weak old man- left life and embraced death, he was brought to the sun by one of the permanent spirits. Arriving there he would be welcomed and celebrated by the other spirits of the sun. They all felt a deep love for one another and created the perfect harmony, and the fire of their love is the one that brings light in the darkness and warmth reaching all the way to the earth. All love that exists on earth finds its source in the sun, thanks to the free spirits. And when true love finds its way between two people, a free spirit turns into an eagle and flies all the way to the earth, to protect that true love and make sure it doesn' break.

When a person living in harmony with nature died, one of the permanent spirits came to guide him to the moon. Where he would be accepted and greeted by his fellow spirits. And together they would sculpture beauty and imprint the ideas of beauty into the humand spirit and send it to earth. And everytime you think something is beautiful, the moon rises and reflects extra love generated by the sun. And when the beauty, as imprinted by the spirits, is created on earth, spirits are able to make a trip to the sun.

People ending up in the rivers of death were not guided by one of the permanent spirits. As a punishment for their unwillingness to make decisions in life, they have to  make sure they find their way to the rivers by themselves. It's not a pleasant road to cover, with plenty of lost spirits, some crying, some scared and somes very aggresive. The people who do not give up and decide to make it to the rivers are put on a boat by the permanent spirits waiting on the shore. And forever they will be on a boat, listen to the relaxing sounds of the water, but unable to ever get off the boat."