Life On The Other Side

Yesterday was All Soul's Day, or Day of the Dead. It's the day where we all gather with our family and together we visit the burial grounds of our loved ones who have departed ahead of us and clean/repair their tombs, offer prayers, candles and flowers too. In our family, we also do our own personal prayers at home, led by a prayer leader and she reads the names of all the souls that we're praying for. After that, we also have a little food feast as a small celebration for the commemoration.

Since we are in the middle of a pandemic, we have the new normal. New protocol was made where all the cemeteries were closed on November 1 and 2 to avoid crowding, hence we can only visit their tombs either before or after those dates. We went there last October 30, then offered our prayers at home by November 1st. As for my boyfriend and his family, they also went to the cemetery on the same date, and offered their prayers on November 2nd. I was there yesterday with his family to attend their commemoration at home too. 

In the Filipino Tradition, we have this belief that sometimes, our departed loved ones would come visit us in our homes in a form of a butterfly. To be honest, I did not believe that, not until yesterday. Well, I've seen butterflies before inside our house, or even while a funeral is going on and my family would say "Look here's your grandfather paying us a visit!" or "Hey it's your Uncle." Then a few minutes later, that butterfly disappears or flies out.  I used to not believe those, not until yesterday.

Last night, I attended my boyfriend's family's commemoration of All Soul's Day. Just like us, they also offered their personal prayers at home, led by their own prayer leader. In front was a picture of his late father, candles and flowers. Right before the prayers started, a yellow butterfly flew inside the house and landed at his father's picture. Dar was the first one to notice it and he called out my attention to tell me about it. I was stunned at what I saw, it's like the butterfly really knew where he was going to land itself. 

His mother then told me the story about the exact same Yellow butterfly that occasionally visits their home. It left me in awe. I don't know but somehow, it made me believe that our departed loved ones really do visit us every once in a while. Because of that, it made me wonder - what is life like on the other side? Is there really another life? 

I had some wild guess like maybe when we die, we get few chances to see our loved ones and then we get to choose in what form should we like to show ourselves on earth 😆. Or maybe we are only allowed to go down if there's a specific occasion there. Or maybe being able to go down as a butterfly is a reward for whatever contest is going on up there. These are all wild imaginative guesses though hahaha!

But whatever form they show, the important thing is we always remember them and pray for their eternal peace, and that wherever our departed loved ones are now, they are happy. To my grandfathers, I miss you both so much and I pray that you're all good and happy, up there with Him. 💙