Away from home

I was really touched by this tombstone in the churchyard here in Frankfurt. To see someone who was so far away from home and so young, who died. Was alone? Was he with his family here? Had he been visiting relatives? Was it an illness? An accident? A crime? Were his last wishes and thoughts to be at home with his family?

I guess this has an especially strong feeling for me since I'm also living in a foreign country, away form my original home. Although Frankfurt is my new home and I have my "new" family and friends here, the thought still remains, when I die, will I think of the Rocky Mountains where my life started? And who knows at the time of my death where I'll be...it could always happen away from home, on vacation for instance. But I guess that's what my Buddhist Faith is trying to teach, I'm already "home" when I rest within the Eternal. Easy to say, but not always easy to be there.

"Coming, all is clear,

no doubt about it.

Going, all is clear,

without a doubt.

What, then, is it all?

-Hosshin 13th cen Zen Monk-

"Empty handed I entered the world

Barefoot I leave it.

My coming, my going---

Two simple happenings

That got entangled.

-Kozan Ichigyo 14th cen Zen Monk-