On Death and Tragedy

I have a friend, again, she is also a friend on Facebook. 
This friend of mine is really remarkable. She is not an ordinary person. But, who is?
 This person, to protect her name and privacy, I will call her Sasha, was born in Bulgaria. In the 1980's Bulgaria, being invaded by Communists, made all the Turks leave Bulgaria. This was not the first mass removal. There had been mass removal before, as my Mother in Law survived 25-ish years before that.
 Anyway, Sasha's mother sent her to live in America with an American , an L.D.S. Family named the Berry's. Now, Sasha married an attorney, who got a job working for the U.S. Dept. Of State.
 Sasha excitedly announced she was pregnant with their third child, a few months ago. She would write her preparations, and had a completely normal pregnancy. 
 She went to London in November, with her kids, her husband and met her family there. Two weeks ago her baby was born. A perfect little girl that was healthy, precious, beautiful, pudgy, and they named her Asmara. 
Asmara in Eritrean means "Unite". Asmara did that. She united her family from America, From Bulgaria and from Turkey, her family and friends from Asia came and loved ones in Africa sent her big flowers and united them too. This little tiny human made a huge impact on many lives. 
    Sadly, and tragically and inexplicably, 5 days ago, little Asmara slipped away in the cold of the night, leaving this realm and being taken from her mother's arms back into God's arms. It was as though God allowed her family to have a time with them, long enough for her to have experienced a body, long enough to be held in her  Earthly Mother's arms and feel the warmth of her Earthly Father. She was able to in this life experience what it was like to have two older sisters, one 4 and one 2 and a half, what it was like to be a sister to two very sweet little girls. She got to bring her American Grandma, and Bulgarian Grandmas together, and for reasons not even the Doctors could explain was called home to the Great Father of the Universe. It was as though God was saying, "Behold, Before you, see something Greater than Yourselves, Love Greater than yourselves, Give of yourselves greater than what you have given, reach beyond your capacity to love and learn that Life is but a speck of sand in the time of Eternity, which has no beginning and no end"
  I have been thinking about this a lot. I have been thinking about this sorrowful news of my friend and thinking, all over the world babies are born and live but a few hours and mother's and father's heart are broken. One person wrote to her that clearly Asmara was too perfect living in this Earth longer than a minute. 
   There are no words to give to my friend that can bring her comfort for the loss of her little baby. I can not imagine how hard Postpartum Depression will be for my friend, and to see other children and wonder what Asmara would be like at that age if but Asmara would be alive.
  But, interestingly, I have had over the last three weeks, about 50 of my Facebook Friends whose family members and loved ones have died. Babies, uncles, brothers, aunts, sisters, grandparents; and this is all suddenly a couple have died unexpectantly, such as Asmara. 
One of my friend posted, "I feel the flu coming on" and three days later, his sister posted "Rest In Peace dear brother, you left us too soon..." and some other sorrowful words. So sad, in fact I thought of my own brothers and how I live so far away, how I would not even be able to say good bye... 
  Why is that so? 

Well, I have some thoughts on death and sadness in this world. 
  First of all, let's pretend for a minute that everyone agrees there is an After Life.  I know not everyone believes this, but, when believing in a God, believing in an After Life is not that far fetched. If you are Christian, Muslim or Jewish, then you already believe that there is an After Life. 
  Now, believing in this After Life, means that we are more than just a body and mind. That we have souls, and that means we have a purpose here in this life. 
 Now, once we believe in this After Life, we can accept that if we live our lives according to God's will, and are good and kind and loving, we will once again be re-united with our family and dear ones when we leave this life we are in right now. 
 Can we suppose that when we left our Pre-Earthly State, that maybe, upon getting our Earthly body, our loved ones miss us such as we miss them in our Earthly State when they die? 
 That is to say that maybe there is a Pre-Life a Pre-Exsistence to our souls that no time knows and that God created our Pre Exsistence, our Earthly Parents created us and that we return to our Heavenly Family, that is to say, our souls leave this Earthly state of being, and we are the same as before, just we have learned things here in this life that will help us in the After Life. 
  With this, Let's suppose for a minute that when we gain our body, we must leave our Heavenly Family, Friends, Life, to experience life here. 
 Why would we then have to experience sadness?
Well, Please let me not be emotional for a minute so please forgive me while I am more matter of fact than emotional

  In order for us to really experience life, for us to truly life, we must have feelings. We must learn things in this life to make us grow here. We need to learn compassion, free will, love, kindness, happiness, good bad, we need to choose what we will be and who we are and how we will live our lives. 
 We must learn by real human experiences in order to appreciate our realms which we are placed in. 
 Before we came to be Earthly Beings, we knew only love, happiness joy, kindness, much live Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before coming to know Transgression. 
  This means that we were like little children.. Imagine how Buddha lived before he found that there was pain on this life... We were sheltered as such in our Pre-Life Being... 
 And so, coming to Earth, we had to live in opposition... Dark, light, wet, dry, good, bad, happiness, sadness... We have to learn all the feelings of humans, to learn compassion. 
Tragedy and sadness helps us to also know love and joy. 
 Have you noticed that when a dear friend of yours is going through a trial, if you have gone through that similar thing, you can strengthen and edify those around you? Have you felt when you are going through a hard time, knowing that someone cares and understands, has helped you and made it more bearable? 
  I do not wish to take away from my friends pain nor to I wish to say that what she has to bear is easy, however, people go through different pain, trials, different tragedies, because we are all different and we all have something here on this planet that is meaning and purpose that is significant to us as individuals. 
Now, People can argue that us who believe in the After Life will just give meaning to us being here. 
People can say that once we die, we are gone. 
 OK. Let's accept this way of thinking for a minute. 
Only for a minute though, because All humans since before the Egyptians built Pyramids, have always wondered this After Life concept. We have the innate desire to wonder if there is more. I mean, we all want to belong to something more. 
  Anyone who doesn't believe in God still want to find the greater purpose and find that there is compassion and goodness and meaning to life. 
  Death and Tragedy in one's life is imminent. But we can call upon the strength with in us, find good and meaning to life, find good in people and find how we all find purpose or we can wither and become stagnant and stale.  
 We can find great love and compassion while suffering or we can hide away and not life a full meaningful, loving healthy life. 
  Scientifically, those who find meaning to their life and help others and find goodness live longer, live a happier life and find that they actually in return are able to emotionally and physically endure life's hardships. 
  It is what we do with our life and hardships that is the key to what we will become. 
Today, let's find compassion and love, let's find meaning and purpose to our lives and let us start with our family. 
 Learn to love
Learn to hug
Learn to smile
Learn to live