Death and dying are difficult subjects to discuss with children. If you are looking for a way to talk about death to your child or grandchild, "When I Die," a short but powerful meditation on death, can give you a safe place to start.
How did Carol Matas come to write When I Die?
""The entire manuscript came to me all at once while I was meditating. I have changed it a little but it is almost exactly as I 'heard' it originally. I wasn't thinking about anything in particular, my mind was rather blank, so I can't explain why I thought of it or how it came to be. But I feel comforted by it in some strange way.
"The circle of life will go on with or without me. Some people tend to think they are the centre of the universe and all important. Others think they don't matter at all and no one would care if they lived or if they died. I tend to think that there is a balance in almost everything. We are all the most important things in the universe- after all, Jewish thought says that if you save one life you have saved the entire world. And it is also true that the world will go on without us and that is a good thing. Everything is important or nothing is important. I believe everything is.""