If you were told today you would die next week, would you be happy and fine with that?

EndofMysteries

I don't know how so many who seem to be certain this life is it after being JW's seem to happily accept it and be fine with it. I am living and trying to live as if this is it. I want there to be a future life/afterlife, something, but I see how fast life comes and goes and even if I'm living it to the fullest, there is no peace for me with the thought this may be it. So much will be left undone, it's going far too fast and each passing year seems to speed up. It feels to me as if somebody saying you are dying tomorrow or next week.

a watcher

That would be fine with me, especially if it's a merciful death. I believe in the resurrection.

Xanthippe

EoM I like you, you have an interesting mind, you like to travel, I still remember those pictures of you by the pyramids. You beat me to it, I still want to get to Egypt. That's why I don't want to die next week. I also want to see the sun rise over the Taj Mahal and the Himalaya. Death holds no fear for me but this is not the place. PM me if you like. Xx

tim3l0rd

I like what Mal said in Firefly, "Everybody dies... Somebody's carrying a bullet for you right now and doesn't even know it. The trick is to die of old age before it finds you."

I don't think any one of us would want to die next week unless you're suffering in excruciating pain from a terminal illness. I'm just now starting to be ok with the idea that there may not be an afterlife. I haven't resigned myself to that belief yet, but it no longer causes the dread that I used to have. The only regret that I would have about dying next week is that I did not wake up sooner so that I would have had children of my own that I can pass on my own values to.

If you live your life to appreciate the small moments, you can experience what many have called "an eternity in a second". I've experienced those seconds and look forward to experiencing many more. Even if I never have children of my own, I know that I have and I will have an impact on the world around us. Even if no one remembers my name 100 years from now, that doesn't mean that my life had no value. Everything we do has an impact (think of the butterfly effect). What we do today will never be done again in the same time and space. It is forever written in space-time.

These thoughts are what keep me sane after waking up from a life where I lived for a future and put off everything today. I've started to learn how to live for today. How to not put things off. How to make a difference. How to say "I love you" frequently to those that I care about.

To summarize: Would I be ok with dying next week? No. I've just woken up and I want to live. Would I be ok with dying next year or the year after that? I'd rather it be like the bullet with my name on it and not know it was coming.

blondie

I'm only sure of my life this moment. I don't know if I will die in the car on the way home in traffic. There is enough really happening to worry about.

NVR2L8

Since I have awaken I am at peace with the fact that I will grow old and pass away. This way I can appreciate the time I have left and enjoy life to the fullest instead of wondering if there is a god and what he requires of me so I can make it to an afterlife, which there's no evidence of. Today I don't believe in anything that requires faith and I am much happier this way, living for the moment and finding joy in the smallest of things...from the warm smile of my neighbor to the sweetness of the raspberries that grow in my yard.

StephaneLaliberte

To be honest with you, I don't know if there is anything after death; On the other hand, I try to live believing it. In the end, once I am dead, if there is really nothing, than I won't even know it, so why worry?

The only thing that is very important to me is for people (or God) to be able to say: "He was a good man". So far, aside for what every JWs think of me, I believe I have achieved this. Hence, if death comes to me tonight or next week, I do not mind; I did my best.

Still, I have young kids, and I'd like to be able to help them and protect them as long as I can. And should I have the honor of dying an heroic death, the better.

StephaneLaliberte

I also take the time to enjoy the the present moment and appreciate what I have while I have it keeping in mind that everything we have, we are bound to loose it. But we can keep the memory forever.

For instance, if one year, I can afford a super nice car and loose it the next, than, I will say: "It was fun to have that car while I had it, I really enjoyed it", instead of "the car that I have now sucks, oh pity me!" I will actually be grateful that I once had the privilege of having a nice car, not linger on the fact that I don't have one now.

Giordano

A less then serious take on dying.

http://www.cowboypoetry.com/mcrae.htm#Rein

Reincarnation

"What does Reincarnation mean?"
A cowpoke asked his friend.
His pal replied, "It happens when
Yer life has reached its end.
They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck,
And clean yer fingernails,
And lay you in a padded box
Away from life's travails."

"The box and you goes in a hole,
That's been dug into the ground.
Reincarnation starts in when
Yore planted 'neath a mound.
Them clods melt down, just like yer box,
And you who is inside.
And then yore just beginnin' on
Yer transformation ride."

"In a while, the grass'll grow
Upon yer rendered mound.
Till some day on yer moldered grave
A lonely flower is found.
And say a hoss should wander by
And graze upon this flower
That once wuz you, but now's become
Yer vegetative bower."

"The posy that the hoss done ate
Up, with his other feed,
Makes bone, and fat, and muscle
Essential to the steed,
But some is left that he can't use
And so it passes through,
And finally lays upon the ground
This thing, that once wuz you."

"Then say, by chance, I wanders by
And sees this upon the ground,
And I ponders, and I wonders at,
This object that I found.
I thinks of reincarnation,
Of life and death, and such,
And come away concludin': 'Slim,
You ain't changed, all that much.'"

RubaDub

If I could do Christina Aguilera as part of the "Make a Wish" thing before I died ... then yes ... I would be fine by me.

Rub a Dub

If you were told today you would die next week, would you be happy and fine with that?

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