Winter Imbolc Moon
Been thinking about dying recently. No, really. In a good way. I try to imagine myself dead at least 5 times a day, my body lying on a small tilted table awaiting cremation. Kate and I saw her mother, Rebecca, just like that.
When I get done with that imaging, usually brief, this song keeps coming up from the far away days of the early 70’s. And it still works for me. In fact, it has an existential content now that’s far more profound than when I first heard it.
When I received the consolation of Deer Creek Canyon shortly after my cancer diagnosis, the mountains forming the Deer Creek valley accepted my short life, my mayfly life against their millions of years.
This song reminds me of something many of us notice when someone close dies, one child is born to carry on. By implication, of course, that means you were that child for someone dying around the time you were born. Living and dying. Beltane to Samain, Samain to Beltane. We are part of the Great Wheel, rolling with it as it goes, in living and in dying.
And when I die
and when I’m dead, dead and gone,
There’ll be one child born and
a world to carry on, to carry on
I’m not scared of dying
and I don’t really care
If it’s peace you find in dying,
well, then let the time be near
If it’s peace you find in dying,
when dying time is here,
Just bundle up my coffin cause
it’s cold way down there,
I hear that’s it’s cold way down there,
yeah, crazy cold way down there
And when I die and when I’m gone,
There’ll be one child born and
a world to carry on, to carry on
I can swear there ain’t no heaven but I pray there ain’t no hell
Swear there ain’t no heaven and pray there ain’t no hell,
But I’ll never know by living, only my dying will tell,
Only my dying will tell, yeah, only my dying will tell
And when I die and when I’m gone,
There’ll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on
All I ask of living is to have no chains on me
All I ask of living is to have no chains on me,
And all I ask of dying is to go naturally, only want to go naturally
Don’t want to go by the devil, don’t want to go by the demon,
Don’t want to go by Satan, don’t want to die uneasy,
Just let me go naturally
And when I die and when I’m gone,
There’ll be one child born, there’ll be one child born
When I die, there’ll be one child born
When I die, there’ll be one child born
When I die, there’ll be one child born
When I die, there’ll be one child born
Songwriters: Laura Nyro
