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Death was as natural and necessary as life,
The human body is an untamed wilderness of undulating mountains, folded valleys, tangled hairy jungles, and cavernous maws brimming with microscopic life. We are vast. We contain multitudes. Each of us is an ecosystem, a walking biome. There are ten times more cells of other organisms in our body than our own. That makes us 90 percent nonhuman.
“Wilderness doesn’t exclude people. It just requires that we change our behavior when we’re in it. It’s like going to church. People don’t live there. They just visit once a week. As soon as they enter, they’re more mindful, more respectful. Even if they don’t listen to the preacher’s words, they get the feeling behind
Death brought out the best in us, Carol believed. In the face of death, we discover what really matters.
Life didn’t stop. It only changed form, like a windblown wave melting into the sea.
She studied death to better understand life, and in the end, what she had learned was this: the greater the knowledge, the deeper the mystery.
