Death is sometimes referred to as a cold pall, a veil that separates the living from those who have passed on. Many great thinkers across time have debated on the nature of death: is it an end? A beginning? Does it even exist?

I can tell you the truth is nothing so romantic.

I can tell you that death is nothing to be afraid of.

In fact, the only thing I can’t tell you is how death will come for you. I’m not a psychic, after all. I’m just dead.

It’s nothing special, really. At least it wasn’t for me. It was a normal day driving home from my sister’s house. There’s a part of the road a few miles past their driveway that curves and then dips down a hill. The speed limit’s 35, but nobody really pays attention to such trivialities, do they?

Anyway, you can probably guess where this is going, so I’ll skip the details. My car ended up on the side of the road and I ended up dead. Simple. It didn’t even hurt.

I suppose my first thought after that should have been towards my family, and technically, it was. Though, I’m not sure “Meg’s gonna kill me for this,” was an appropriate reaction.

So there you have it. Was it the dramatic scene you play out in your head before you go to sleep? Maybe you imagine your family and friends around you as you take your last breath, or crying over what a good person you were at your wake. Sorry to disappoint you there. I didn’t get to see my funeral, or my wake. People might have cried. I’d sure like to think so.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. My death is unimportant here. What really matters is what I found out about death. See, there was no bright light or tunnel; no grim reaper shepherding me into the next life. God didn’t show up and pass judgment down on me, nor did the devil attempt to steal my soul. Instead, I saw a group of people standing around.

That’s it: just people. No world, no car accident, not even a background. Just a crowd of normal-looking people.

“Hey,” one of them said to me. “You new?”

“Hey,” I said. “I guess. Where am I?”

The man seemed to be middle-aged, balding but with a neatly trimmed beard. “We haven’t figured that out. Most of us just call it Limbo and be done with it.”

“Are we dead?”

“As far as we can tell. We’re waiting.”

“For what?”

The man spread his arms wide. “For life to continue the circle.”

“The circle?”

“Yeah. You didn’t think you’d just stay dead, did you? All these people here are waiting to be put into their next life.”

“Oh,” I said. “So reincarnation is real?”

“Dunno what that means, so sure, why not?”

The people I could see were mostly just standing around, talking. I guess dead people don’t have anything better to do. “So, you’re all just waiting here?” I asked the man.

“Yep,”

“Is that it? That’s death?”

“Seems to be,” he replied. “Though I certainly don’t feel dead. Do you?”

I had to admit that my body felt like it was in its prime. I could see, hear, and smell perfectly. I put a hand to my chest and even felt a heartbeat. “That’s not possible,” I said.

“You’re telling me.” The man shrugged. “My heart’s the thing that did me in. Now it’s beating like nothing ever happened. I’m starting to wonder if it was all a dream after all.”

“So what is death?” I wondered aloud.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Did you have a good life?”

I thought of my wife and my beautiful daughter. I thought of the people I had helped at my job at the animal shelter. I thought of all the smiling faces I got to see every day, and it brought a smile to my face in turn. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

“That’s all you can really ask for.” The man said. “Here’s hoping your next run is just as good.”