Does Death Inspire Life? (HK)

(Updated: 07.20.11) Did death or almost dying/someone else dying inspire you to live?

What do you fear most about death?

How do you view death?

Death has transformed my ability to live in the now.  Not through almost dying or the death of a loved one, but through the knowledge that our lives are truly short and death is a part of the cycle of life.  Ancient wisdom tells us that the key to living is to die before dying.  In this way we come to terms with what a gift life truly is.

My ultimate goal is to always treat life as a gift.  When I die I want to look back on my life and see that I have created a life of love and happiness, and not one of suffering.  The mind loves to suffer.  Through understanding that simply fact you can transcend a lot of your negative thoughts and emotions.

---Wendy Irene, www.givelovecreatehappiness.com

I have fewer close friends than I have fingers and thumbs. Of this small number, three have died in the past seven years. I have an interesting relationship with death- I think all climbers do. It’s a known known.  It’s a given.

The fears I struggle with are fears of life, of living- not fears of death. Living is the hard part. Dying? It only happens once for each lifetime. It takes far more effort to live well than it does to die well.

For me, living is an active choice. I’ve lived with depression since I was a young teenager. It is the bottomless canyon below the tightrope of mental health I traverse each and every day. There are no days off from maintaining mental health, there are no vacations from reality without swift and brutal consequences. I have chosen Life and chosen to live it fully awake. I’ve decided not to numb myself with the myriad options available, but rather to experience each facet as it occurs- for better and for worse.

---Ti Conkle, www.titaniumvertical.com, Climber | Author | Photographer

Death is such a funny concept isn't it?  I used to think that moments after life would be the same as moments before birth -- simply non-existant in regards to consciousness or soul or spirit.  But somehow that's changed in my mind, because to say that would be to ignore the fact that something has happened in-between -- life.  And that changes things doesn't it?  Somehow a soul has linked itself to flesh and blood to breath consciousness into the here and now.

Death it seems is simply that soul relinquished -- no longer contained or conscious, but still in existence somehow; the only way to grasp it is through memory, but I'd like to believe it's still there.  I wouldn't say then that I fear death, I simply mourn it's passing because it means the end of experience -- of love and life on Earth.  There are things to hope for in death, though it's unknowable whether or not they're true -- we can hope for reincarnation, we can hope for heaven, we can hope for another realm, and we can believe in it all, but it's impossible to know until it happens.  If I die and come back, I'll let you know how it goes (though if that's already happened, I'll say I don't know what it's like, because I don't).  Tee hee, mind games.  ^_^.

The tragedy in death is the inability to be anymore -- to no longer be, to no longer hold another, to no longer love or be loved.  I'm crying, writing this -teary smile-  When life is so beautiful, it only makes death all the more tragic.  And for that, I hate it and don't want to think about it.  And so we keep on living, pushing off death until it comes for us.  But let's not think about it anymore, our souls are still contained in body and mind, so we dance.  

---Alex Levy, www.alexrlevy.com

I was listening to a talk by author Donald Miller last week and he asked a question that really got me thinking about life and death. The question was, "If you died today, what dream would die with you?"

He gave the example of his friend who runs a non-profit bringing clean water to Africa saying that if she died, millions of people in Africa would not get clean water. That is a life of impact. Death motivates me then by helping me think about the importance of using each day to the fullest, to spend each moment doing impactful, important work. If I died today, what dreams would die with me?

---Aaron believes everyone can learn another language. You just need a little help. That’s why he writes The Everyday Language Learner and why he has developed the free Ten Week Journey. He wants to get you started on the road to language learning and then give you the tools to keep going. Get started. Don't stop. 

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I’m not sure it has exactly. With the death of my uncle and to some extent my dog, I was very depressed. I honestly tend to “shut down” for a while. It saddens me writing this that I will never see some of my loved ones again.

And while I don’t think death inspires me, I will say it does a good job of removing the superficial worries of daily life. The raw grieving, while painful, somehow makes me feel more real or authentic (hard to explain).

Not being around to experience this world. Not seeing my wife and my friends. It scares me that I’ll just be gone and won’t exist anymore.

---Doug Grootveld, www.wellnessrenegade.com

 With life, we must also accept death. That is the natural order of events – we’re born, we live, we die.

Though you could consider me fortunate to not have anybody close to me die yet, I think that it is not as fortunate as you may think. I say this purely because the people who I know who have lost dear family and/or friends who were very close to them, have grown from the experience and become more open, human beings. Death does that to you, it helps strip away the masks, the false identities that you once had, and it exposes you to the bare truth of life which is people die.

When my grandmother died earlier this year, I felt like a chapter had come to a close. She was the last of my grandparents, and now that I no longer have any grandparents in this world, I feel that this era has finished for me now. I’m no longer able to access the wisdom that they possessed, or to feel a special bond with someone that goes beyond the immediate family. Though part of me also thinks that I could have done whilst they were still alive, I know that their time had come in their own respective days, and it’s now time to learn what I can from the experience, and move on.

Death comes to us all in the end, and we never know when it comes. All we can do is accept it, embrace it, and ensure when we do leave this world, we leave it in a better state than when we found it.

---Stuart, www.unlockthedoor.net

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I had three grandparents pass away by the age of 12. As a child, there are too many questions to be able to really understand death -- this was especially the case for me as a kid. And I think that having younger siblings who would look up to me compelled me to be a strong figure for them during these years.

In adulthood, death has a similar effect on us all. Beyond the sadness of loss, it humbles each of us and compels us to reassess our lives. This is the effect I feel after attending a wake or funeral -- I'm sure you're no different. You leave, and in spite of feeling so sad and melancholy, you feel this overwhelming drive to be as alive as you possibly can, to live fully and make changes. I remember the feeling of exiting the church and the sun never felt brighter, the air never crisper. The honesty of death and the realization that we all shall pass reminds us to live presently, to absorb every day and moment, and not to waste what gifts we've been given.

---Dave Ursillo is a 25-year-old writer, blogger and life-explorer at www.DaveUrsillo.com. As an alternative leadership author and speaker, he teaches people how to "Lead Without Followers" in any walk of life by nurturing a quiet, profound sense of personal leadership.

I don't fear it much at all, which helps given some of the oddball places I travel. It goes along with having an optimistic outlook on life, in that you can't focus on negative things all the time and hope to succeed. I figure I have lived a pretty great life and am currently living an even more interesting life than ever before - if the time comes, it comes. Better to happen to me out on the road doing things that people normally only dream of than dying in my cubicle back home.

---Michael Hodson, www.goseewrite.com

I fear the moment of death, the moment where I stop breathing and my heart stops beating and I’m in transition between this life and what comes next. There’s so much that we don’t know and almost nothing that we do know about what happens there, and I almost always fear what is unknown. I am confident that there’s an afterlife, but it’s that moment of getting there that has always terrified me.

---Sarah Winfrey, www.sarahwinfrey.com

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