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Life and Death

 Like any great love story, there were two. The couple morphs into one being, like yin and yang, darkness and light, you cannot have one without the other. Life and Death. It is all a great cycle. At the beginning of time, there was darkness. That story we all know well. First there was darkness, and then there was life. Life was a beautiful creature. She made the green of the worlds, and everything that inhabited it, from the fish in the sea to the birds in the air. The world was beautiful and perfect. The water was clear and crisp. The air was cool and light. The trees swayed as the leaves danced in the wind. Everything lived in perfect harmony. Life loved her creations, she loved what she had done. But one day, to Life's horror, she felt a ripping in the life-force, something was being taken from her in some strange way. She found the source of the unbearable pain; a fish floated, unmoving, in the sea. Life rushed towards the fish, but before she could reach it, she saw something peculiar...

A swarm of darkness moved close to the fish, and when it reached the fish, from the darkness emerged a being unlike anything Life had ever imagined; it was Death. The darkness moved like smoke and clung to Death like a cloak. Life cried out when Death softly scooped the fish out of the water, a smoking tendril of his cloak enveloped the fish, and the fish was gone. Death looked to the sky and raised his cloaked arms, welcoming the life-force that his body consumed from the fish. Death turned to the moon to leave, and Life shrieked with horror, and reached out towards Death, who turned and looked her in the eye, and smiled. And then, like a blink of the eye, he was gone.

For two days, Life cried for the loss of her poor fish, lost forever in Death. Life couldn't cope, she travelled her lands searching for Death. She wanted to demand he gave back the Life he stole from her, and banish him from her provinces. But she could not find him. For weeks she searched, and searched, but to no avail. It wasn't until she felt that awful ripping again that she knew Death was back, claiming another of her creations. This pain was worse than the first, the life-force greater. When she reached the forest, she was too late. She arrived just in time to see the bear being embraced by death's dark cloak. Life screamed again, this time rage overpowering her sadness. Death simply just smiled and, once more, disappeared.

Again, life couldn't cope, the pain was, once again, unbearable. Out of sadness, Life created a small fish, to fill part of the void in her life-force.... And it worked. The void partially closed. Astonished, Life examined the little fish. It was quite unlike the fish she lost, but somehow made up for it. Life moved to the forest and created a bear, much smaller than the one she lost, just a cub, but the void closed completely. Incredulously, Life created more animals, making up for the lives lost, and Life was happy again.

But once again, life felt the ripping, Death, taking Life. Life was incredibly sad, but now she knew how to fix the pain; she created new life. She was still quite angry with Death, but she began to get used to the little dance they had, and soon, she began to rely on the balance their dance created.

Life created life, a gift for death, and death kept it forever.

We cannot have light without facing the dark, cannot have happy without enduring the sad, and cannot have Life without greeting Death.