#writer #death #inspiration #book
Death is a huge and complicated subject. Death is unavoidable yet it is a subject that we, as a culture, choose to avoid. Death begins the moment they cut the umbilical cord. Each day we live we are one day closer to the day we die. I don’t say this to ruin your day; it is just the simple truth. None among us knows the date on the other side of the dash. This is why it is so important to live every day like it might be our last: to pay attention and to appreciate the ever-changing, precious moments of our lives.
The more we embrace death the greater the quality of our lives. Elizabeth Kubler Ross called death a “highly creative force.” Facing death means we are able to face the ultimate question of the meaning of life. In order to live we have to have the courage to walk through life realizing that our lives are nothing but a blip on the screen of time.
We all have experiments with death or more precisely, exposed to it; but most of us didn’t try to face it bravely. I’ve my experience with death and I remember that when I was about to drown in the sea, I ran into the sea, I sobered up a little, and when it was time to get out I could not. The sea wouldn’t let me. It would pull me back, grab me, and stuff me under water. The worst part was, I could feel the pebbles on the ground with my toes – the shore was so close – but the sea would pull me back every time I’d ground myself.
I screamed and my friends replied with cheerful cries and whistles. They thought I was having a great time. I lost the breath to shout. The sea hit me, turned me. And then it hit me – I was dying. my palms started sweating, my heart picked up the pace, and that cold feeling finally materialised into anxiety.
The thing that’s curious to me is that I didn’t realise I was dying much earlier. I was terrified out of my mind, I didn’t have any air to breathe, I had absolutely no thought in me apart from ‘get out of the water, get out of the water, get out of the water’. But I still didn’t get it. I was afraid for my life, but I didn’t think that I would die. Not even that, I didn’t think anything at all. I just tried to get out over and over and over again. And then I felt a body next to me. Someone got hold of me, and I remember thinking that I need to grab their shoulder so I don’t pull them under water. I tried kicking with my legs. And then everything went black.
What I’m trying to say that everyone has thier own experience but the point here is
“what was our reaction?”
Shakespeare said, “Everyone owes God one good death.” Death does not discriminate. It does not discriminate between blacks and whites, rich and poor, women nor men, the youth or the elderly. So why not live fully expressed, wrapped in the beauty, the mystery and the power of death and let it fuel us with the thrill of living like we are dying each and every moment.
Think about it…if today were your last, what would you be doing? Better still, who would you be being? Who would you be with? Who would you be telling what to? Who would you be forgiving? And more importantly, what is left for you to do?
Because there is one thing for sure, you don’t want to die with your music still in you.
