INDEED. NOT ALIGHTING AS A STRANGER TO SOME UNFAMILIAR PLACE WE HAVE NEVER HEARD OF BUT TO A PREPARED PLACE THAT WE'VE OFTEN THOUGHT OF AND THAT AWAITS OUR EXPECTED ARRIVAL...GOING HOME! MARVELOUS AND SO ENJOYED MY FRIEND, THANK YOU! LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...HIS+INSPIRATIONS.

How curious it is that three read-throughs and I still feel uplifted by this ‘Not as a Stranger,’ John. Don’t know if it is because I am chronologically on the downside of the mountain, but if that is why your last line felt to me like ‘looking up not down,’ then I am grateful for my age and for this writing. You captured the ethereal concept of our ‘continuance,’ expiring out of physical being. As with many of your writings, the last line is so very satisfying. Thank you ~~ djl

For anyone choosing to believe that dying is an end, these words ask such people be not so hasty in their conviction. We don't know. Period. One thing is sure, as human beings we are comprised of matter that is an existence. For some, existence is strictly biological and scientific supported. For others, there is the divine theory. Still for others, our dust, our merging with the soil, our ashes are all known as existence that at some point, is airborne and we do not know if that is in fact a new beginning as such dust roams until some aspect of energy exercises attachment, grounding. Yes, I'll choose the new beginning theory if for no other reason than to know I trust science. I don't trust the supernatural counterargument.