A very simple quote and very to the point:
“It is beneficial to be aware that you will die.”
I used to think that the reminder was always the most important aspect of life. When you’re in the position or indeed reminded of the frailties of life, you tend to live with more appreciation of those simple things around you.
I almost died in 1998 of something called “Parrot Fever”. I’d been around cemetaries for as long as I can remember, even lived next to one for 11 years. I’d never been spooked by them, but found inside a peace I couldn’t really convey. When you see the headstones and the engravings, sometimes porcelain plates, you start to think about what life truly is. What you want to make out of it.
We never know how much time we have, and for that reason when a reminder comes, at least for me, it boosts me into this fast paced creative mode. It comes in spurts and is influenced by everything in my surroundings, my environment. It’s always with death in mind.
Years ago I met a woman who had died, and came back. Woke up in a body bag in the morgue. She had a NDE- a near death experience- and was told in those moments she wasn’t alive that it would be her mission to live and tell of her experience. She wrote a book.
It turns out many people who have these near death experiences, have similarities between each other, one being- their not fearful of death.
I seem to recall when I was a young sickly child waking up in an oxygen tent in the hospital. I may have been 5 or 6, but I’d experienced something I couldn’t describe. I want to say the only thing I did was try and draw it.
I could never confirm its existance, because it was so long ago. My parents are old-fashioned and would never allow me to try and find out more on account of my “funny” background- funny in this case, spooky. Besides, I was only VERY young, and now, I have more years than I care to choose behind me. I wondered whether I’d actually experienced anything, or it was put there by some imaginary trait- point was, I had many traits of the NDE type.
In retrospect, death is simply part of life. We lose family, we lose friends, and eventually, we will lose ourselves. It’s important to enjoy life, to live it and experience different aspects of it. Don’t close yourself in, but get out. The unknown will either be half empty or half full. Try and fill it up; don’t spill any, and when you’re thirsty, get some water.
“It is beneficial to be aware that you will die.” Because you will learn how to live….