Because of death we appreciate life #14

What is your answer to that question?

If we are young, we do need to even think about it. When there is so much opportunity waiting for you, life is to be taken by the scruff of the neck and given a bit of a shake. 

But let’s come back to the question. Does anybody live forever?

Well, with what we know at the moment, all of our physical existences will come to an end at some point. That means you, and that means me. In fact is there anything we can actually do about it? Is it something we can control?

Sure, we can do all we can to keep ourselves safe, and by doing that we will, hopefully, live for many years. But no, death is not anything we can control. It is an inescapable truth.

Now this all sounds a bit morbid. Instead of death being a negative, maybe we can turn it into a positive. As I have shared in recent blogs, the fact that life does have an inescapable end point, we would want to make the most of our days right now, spreading a positive legacy, as far as we can, in our small parts of the world. After all, we want to leave the world a better place than when we found it, so when people talk about you, after you have gone, your legacy will live on through them.

And when life starts to come to an end, whether you think there is a next life, or not, you will be able to look back on the positivity you have created. And when the time comes, you will be able to walk through that ‘door’ with nothing to fear, greeting death as an equal, and not something to fear. Consider this quote by Jean de La Fotaine, a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century:

“Death never takes a wise man by surprise. He is always ready to go.”

Where is the wisdom in such a comment?

Well quite simply, a wise person knows there is an end point, and has made the most of life, and when he or she comes to the end, there is little or no regrets. There is no point hanging on, when it is time to go, it is time to go, and then the grieving for those left behind will be able to start.

In one of the Harry Potter books and movies, there was the Tale of the Three Brothers, which quite beautifully compared the lives of two brothers who tried to get around death, and who both came to an early end, and the third, who sat comfortably with death, and  walked away, at the end of life, as equals. Death was not something to be feared, but to be acknowledged as part of life.

If you would like to have a look at the clip, please click here.

So what is the choice? To constantly look over our shoulder and hope death will never come, and in essence to be scared of it, or to use death as a compelling motivation, to makes these days count, while we have them. If we choose the latter, it could be just be that our days have counted, and our lives has mattered.

This is probably what we all want.

The commentary in this blog is intended to be general in nature. It is just some observations from one fellow traveller in life to another. If anything in this blog raises issues for you, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or consult with a trusted medical professional. 

Photo by Gabby Orcutt on Unsplash