Thread: Death
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Old 07-03-2006, 01:36 PM
  # 59 (permalink)  
DesertEyes
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Starting over all over again
Posts: 4,426
Hey gang,

Sorry I'm late to the party.

Death and dying are particularly intriguing subjects to me, thanx for starting this thread. My interest is strictly personal, I have no education or degrees in any of the relevant disciplines. All I have is a little bit of experience.

I have died 5 times so far. Officially. Heart stopped, EMT's or ER docs were about to write me off and surprise! Rusty ol' body cranked up, sputtered and I'm still here. There's a nasty little disease running thru my body and the docs have no clue why I'm still alive. Never mind how to fix the problem.

No Hollywood special effects for me. I saw no "white lights" or angels or souls of the dearly departed. Maybe I wasn't dead long enough. I have no idea how "long" is long "enough". Since I was brought back with minimal damage to the ol' nogging I couldn't have been too close to "enough".

Dying doesn't scare me. It doesn't hurt. If there's a heaven afterwards that would be great, and if there isn't, then I won't miss it.

Living scares me. There is so much pain, anguish and cruelty in the world. So many people suffering in misery. One of these days yours truly is going to have episode #6 and the world will no longer be my problem. In the meantime I've reached an acceptance about life and death. There is not a darn thing I can do about my dying. Nothing. Out of my control. However, there is a huge amount of things I can do about my living.

In my life there have been many people who reached out and made a difference. Those people did not change the world, but they changed mine. As was posted earlier, even a simple smile can change make a difference. So while I'm still around I intend to do what I can to make my little corner of the world the best it can be.

Don't want a mausoleum, or a funeral, or any of that stuff. (Leaves more flowers and marble for you guys ) The only place I want to be remembered is not in some building, or piece of art. I want to be remembered in the most eternal place there is, in the hearts and souls of those I touched.

Yesterday it rained, and some little frogs that live under my A/C came out to frollic. I took a little time to enjoy their company, and that of the warm rain. I met with some friends in the evening, and had a cuople very nice phone conversations. My world was beautiful and perfect yesterday, and today is looking great so far. That's all I have. No clue if I'll have a tomorrow. If I do that's great. If I don't, that's fine too cuz I've had the best life I could ever have dreamed of. One day at a time, sometimes with friends, sometimes with silly little frogs in the rain.

I have a running joke with some of my friends in a support group I attend for terminal folks like me: First person to discover an afterlife has to come back and give the rest of us the winning lottery numbers

Mike
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