Speaking with Buddhist friends this week the topic was benefactor moments. An instance that you recall in your life when someone granted you an act of love, kindness or mercy. Although that moment may have occurred years ago , you can still recall the emotion and grace of it. It is, in a sense, outside of time. In the past but present to you in a real sense.

When someone recently has died we often speak of them as late. If you stop to think about it, that is an odd idiomatic expression. Now that they are no longer among us in the flesh, how can they be late? They have become outside of time yet we still speak of them in relation to our human construct of time.

In the case of my recently deceased Father, in some ways I feel closer to him now than when he was alive and living 1500 miles away. I think of him every day and no physical distance separates us...our relationship has become outside of time.