Not worth thinking about!
I agree with Sirona. Like her, I was very healthy. I hadn't seen my doctor in years and was quite fit. Then, I got hit with a rare form of cancer, Mantle Cell Lymphoma. I was given a short time to live, but have beaten the prognosis twice. When I live through October, that'll be three times I've passed my sell-by date!
I'm very positive and the vigils undertaken by so many people here have undoubtedly helped. I refused chemotherapy for over 18 months before I had no choice - and it saved my life thus far (with the vigils, of course). I'm not ashamed to say I even started praying again (finding the teachings of Watchtower are false makes one question everything).
It's an old cliche to take every day as it comes and I believe that's not always possible. It seems like the days go a lot quicker now when I'd rather they slowed down, of course! However, my disease gave me a wake-up call on how I should be living. There's no point in worrying about death as we could even succumb to a fatal heart attack in our sleep even in our twenties.
What I've also realised is that we should be preparing for our deaths now. I don't mean that in a morbid sense; that it should be a constant thought. Rather, by truly living, i.e. helping our fellow man and the environment we are actually preparing ourselves for a good outcome in our next life, whether one believes in karma/kamma or going to heaven. Getting to know who we really are through the likes of meditation, I believe, also helps us prepare better for death. As it is inevitable it should be something we can accept and, dare I say it, even welcome.
Life isn't all that pleasant when one truly analyses it. Sure, we can have happy times - but they are fleeting; they don't last. At some time we are likely to become ill. Our loved ones will also get ill and some will die. Sadly, some will be killed or die of a disease. We also grow old and could become infirm. The Buddha said all is suffering - dukkha - and he is right. Life CAN be joyful, which is why nobody wants to die, but if we are truly honest we know life truly is suffering because of what I have outlined above and how fleeting it all is.
I am happier now than I have been for a very long time - but I still worry about my family. Nature teaches us an awful lot. It just gets on with life - and death - without ever thinking about it. So, thinking of when I may or may not die isn't worth the effort, though, yes, it WOULD be nice to reach old age in a happy and healthy condition knowing that one's children are also happy and healthy - and one's grandchildren, too.
I look at life differently now. I watch the birds come to the feeders in my garden and observe how they just get on with life - the flowers, trees and insects, too. In reality, we are no different. I strongly believe in life after death, from a mainly Buddhist perspective but from a Christian one, too. For me death is a journey. My body will perish but not my consciousness, which will travel on to wherever it is meant to go (depending on my kamma). Of course, not everyone will agree. They will say one's consciousness dies with the body, but there are so many encouraging writings to the contrary (one immediately thinks of the works of Ramana, of the sayings of the Buddha, of Christ Jesus and of the Dalai Lama, etc.). All encouraging works that give genuine hope for the future. My goal is a simple one - to get off the constant weel of life, known as Samsara.
This is a good and interesting thread.
Love to All,
Ian