Life and Death

“Rarely are we reminded so clearly of the sweetness of human life.”

- Quotes from Chilean Miner who was trapped underground.

I have met many people through my life that know the value and rarely take for granted the moments they have here on earth. Almost all of them had something in common: they had faced life and death either in their own lives or the lives of those close to them.

So why does it take facing life or death to choose to appreciate life?

Life and Death change our Priorities.

If your coffee machine goes out, your priority is to get another coffee machine. But if your electricity if off, and that’s why the coffee maker doesn’t work, then you have the potential for food going bad, work being missed, a financial expense getting it fixed, and so on. It’s no longer about coffee. If your home burns down, and there are no sockets to plug in your coffee maker, then your priority is shelter above all else.

Life and Death refines priorities so we forget coffee pots, and clothes, and fancy cars, etc, and concentrate of those things of life.

Life and Death change our perspective.

This is close to priorities, but it is the way we look at how our world affects us. Whereas before life and death, we saw our jobs as affecting our happiness, our welfare, our ego, etc. After life and death we see a job, for example, in terms of continuing quality of life. Does our job add to the quality of this life that I am living? Does it take away more than it brings.

Perspectives also change from what will bring satisfaction now to what will continue to satisfy, fulfill, inspire today and tomorrow.

Life and Death limit variables in choices.

It is like shopping at the discount store. There are thousands of choices for food, household products, personal products, etc. There is so much to choose from, we take for granted that we will be able to find toothpaste, for example. We just know it will be there, and hundreds of different ones.

Life and death reduce the choices we have.

We can’t choose a thousand ways to deal with something like cancer. There are choices, no doubt, but a few from which we may decide that are effective. Being faced with the death of a loved one, the choices we make come out of what is of benefit to those that are still mourning, or ourselves, when we are still in grief and pain. Rarely do we think about the latest cake mix or the most attractive sports car at this point. We are in survival mode and our and other’s grief are the variables with which we work.

Life and Death change when we pay attention.

Facing death brings us to a hyperawareness of NOW. Now we are faced with life and death. Now we need to make decisions. Now we need to feel. Now we need to act. Thinking of tomorrow, the future comes a far second to being in the Now. As we do pay attention to the Now, we also start appreciating the now. We start appreciating life.

So why do we not start living until we face not living?

Our priorities, perspective, choices and awareness of the present lead us to appreciate what we have and what we don’t, and to celebrate what we have to live in the now, to the fullest. Life and death are the impetus, the spark, the catalyst to begin to see the value of life and the living of it.