Do we truly die?

That’s the question everyone’s dying to know the answer to. 

Some believe in life after death, while others believe we simply crumple, crumble into dust. Never to be seen, heard, or felt again. 

But that’s only a fraction of the truth. That kind of truth can only be found within the tiniest strand of an eyelash, blinking it into our plane of existence. The real truth is embedded far beneath the suits of skin we zip ourselves into. Even beneath our bones. They’re just like the fibrous strings we call muscle, only a thousand times more vulnerable: 

The human heart.

It’s our very foundation, our reason for being, the thick glass melted together in a shiny mold. It literally pumps life into our bodies, and leaves when we “die.” 

When someone you love passes, your glass heart shatters into fragments that viciously slash the ropes binding together the entire pulley system you’ve constructed since your birth. And when your foundation cracks, the person left to clean up the mess is you and only you. You must glue those pieces back together again.

So you can think that person is gone, their last mark on this Earth carved into a headstone, but are they truly gone? 

When you look to the world around you, the one that fueled the greatest desires and deepest sorrows of your heart, that person is still there. You claim you can’t see them anymore, but you can, you just have to know where to look.

You can see the color of their eyes blend into the cerulean sky above and know they’re looking back at you.

You can hear the melodic tones of their voice carried by the currents of the wind and know they’re speaking to you.

You can smell their god-awful cologne as the salt from the sea stings your nose and know they’re walking past you.

You can feel their blazing warmth as your fingertips graze the growing fire and know they’ve placed a hand on your shoulder.

And most of all, you can taste them on your tongue as they trace your lips. That sugary flavor was the true mark they left: you. Even if not carved into stone, they left their legacy to you. You are a living, breathing reminder of all they were and all they thought you are and could be. They live within you, within your glued glass heart.

So, do we truly die?

No. We become the hope pumped through our posterity, to give them the courage to live before their bodies drift asleep, ready to take on our next form.