Death
Everyone wonders how they will die. You wonder about the time and the moment. Will it be sudden or will some disease slowly take command of your body?
What you fear most about death is your powerlessness over it.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, “We die the way we live.” Does this mean that you can take control of the fear of death by living?
It may be hard for you to imagine life and death’s intimate connection.
When you are all about life, then you are ready for death. Is that possible? Is it a cruel trick that when you are loving life the most is when you are closest to death? Does loving life prepare us for its end?
Yes! Yes! Yes! Because then, death is seen as a completion; a transition or transformation. Then life is seen not as a moment in time, but a continuation into eternity. Your life becomes everlasting. You become a Goddess in your own time.
After completing your life, death comes to find you. All the earth will honor your memory by remembering the ways you loved life.
You will then sit at the table of angels and saints to be honored.
Kiss Your Life... 365 Reasons to Love Who You Are
By: Ann Mody Lewis, Ph.D.
Reason: 129 Page:207
Commentary:
We live with death every moment of our lives; old cells die throughout our body making way for the birth of new cells. We experience loss and disappointments, endings and beginnings throughout our lives but most of us fear, without consolation, our own physical death. This topic makes us shutter because we consider it morbid! Is it possible we can consciously prepare ourselves for death while we are busy living?
Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism all believe that death is not the end of one’s existence but rather a transition from one life to another. Research confirms that most people believe that life continues after death even though their own death is unimaginable.
Perhaps it is death’s finality, unpredictability, and mystery that freak us out! Though death is inevitable and sometimes predictable, it puts us in direct contact with our own confusion and powerlessness. After all, we pride ourselves on control and achievement. Thoughts of loss, grief, and helplessness activate hidden fears we’re reluctant to face. So why should we torment ourselves by discussing death?
Discussion of death reminds us that what is superficial will pass, what is built can be replaced and miracles of medicine cannot overrule the nature of our humanity. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross reminds us: “We are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.” She believed: “after death we become complete.” Could our acceptance of death then begin that completion in this life?
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.” Steve Jobs
So, let’s learn to live together by facing-down what holds us back…our fear of Death!
This month’s topics include: Connections between life and death; the spirituality of death; how we can share in the death of others; why accepting death can make us fearsome.
Let’s talk,
Ann
