Have you thought about your demise? Have you mentally prepared yourself

**Claret** · 05-12-2011 04:35 PM

for what will be for all of us, inevitable? I recently received some bad health news and basically I was told nothing could be done unless it gets worse and I have a heart attack. Then my options will be stents or a bypass. and probably within the next 5 to 10 years.
This has me wondering about death and about the stages a person goes through to accept death as part of one's future. I'm not ready to not be here.
For God's sake I still have acne on occasion and have a zest for life.
I'm active, I take downhill ski lessons in the winter, I play curling once and sometimes twice a week, I dance (bellydance) once a week, I do most of the outdoor maintenance on our home, all of the cooking and cleaning. I bike. I am an active person and I'm not ready to quit now.
I don't know what I should be thinking -- it's all too new and too strange for me.

**ccraig42** · 05-12-2011 06:54 PM

I used to OBSESS over my death! I had dreams about it, thought about it all day long, wrote about it. It wasn't like morbid or anything like that...I was just so intrigued with the idea, I couldn't stop thinking about it. It consumed A LOT of my time though and eventually it turned me paranoid with a heavy dose of anxiety. I wish now I could have just let it go because it has definitely affected my mental health. I don't think any of us know what we should be thinking. We'll never know death until we get there. I feel as though it's not something anyone should obsess over even if they are staring it in the face. You should continue living your life! It sounds like you have a lot of energy left and lots of places to disperse it!

**Texinator** · 05-12-2011 07:18 PM

I only ever worry about the possibility of friends and loved ones dying, never about myself. When it's my time to go, it's my time to go. I don't worry about it because I guess I'm fine with whatever comes after. Either there will be some after life, in which case death won't be a bad thing; there will be reincarnation, in which case I'll get to live life again; or there won't be anything at all, in which case I won't be conscious and won't have a chance to be disappointed by the nothingness.

**SaharaJim** · 05-12-2011 10:14 PM

My body is not me. I "inhabit" it but it is not "me". When I have learned/done what God wants of me in this life- I will ""go" from here. I hope those that "mourn" me will be comforted in the concept that I am not "gone" save from this "life". I am in no hurry to leave- I love the life I have- good and bad; pleasure and pain- it is a wonderful "gift" from my God. But I have no "fear" of death- the pain which it may entail doesn't thrill me; but it comes when it comes. I have insurance and have made provisions for those I love.

**Maximus** · 05-13-2011 01:02 AM

Originally Posted by SaharaJim

My body is not me. I "inhabit" it but it is not "me". When I have learned/done what God wants of me in this life- I will ""go" from here. I hope those that "mourn" me will be comforted in the concept that I am not "gone" save from this "life". I am in no hurry to leave- I love the life I have- good and bad; pleasure and pain- it is a wonderful "gift" from my God. But I have no "fear" of death- the pain which it may entail doesn't thrill me; but it comes when it comes. I have insurance and have made provisions for those I love.

You surprise me there. Positively

**spurzzz** · 05-13-2011 04:30 AM

Both Tex and SaharaJim have made brilliant comments which echoe my thoughts.

My personal belief is that there is a creator of this universe and to whom we will report to once our time in this world is up. What have we done, did we do enough to understand our purpose in life or did we waste time and not do enough? Have we sinned etc etc. All these questions and more will have to be accounted for and I believe in Heaven and .

Life is an amazing journey we must experience in order to move onwards and upwards.....or in some cases downwards!

**Claret** · 05-13-2011 05:50 AM

But I am looking at my own mortality and my mind is saying "it is (or it will be) too soon". What happens to the body, to me, is immaterial. I just don't want to go without learning what I need to learn, seeing what I need to see, saying what I need to say, feeling what I need to feel. Perhaps if I was a strong believer, or had a belief system that allowed me to see a "second life" so to speak in the afterlife, then I might be able to justify things.

**miffed23** · 05-13-2011 06:36 AM

If there are still questions to be answered, the feeling that you haven't achieved what you set out to, then we are 'tested' again in another life. This is why people that commit suicide aren't doing themselves any favours because they will have to answer for what they did again. These are my beliefs. However, your thread has made me think, if we're not actually presented with the scenario of having a terminal illness for example, then have we really thought about how we would really feel in that situation. If we don't have the beliefs mentioned, then I would imagine that the darkness of death is even more so prominent. We have these beliefs as a safety net. If I were in your situation, I think (and all I can do is think because I don't believe that anyone will know how they'd react) I would be bending over backwards to achieve whatever it was that I felt I hadn't fulfilled. It would certainly put things into perspective, put it this way, I wouldn't be complaining that I put my sock on inside out. Get out there, live life. Heart felt wishes to you.

**MarkT** · 05-13-2011 06:49 AM

I believe like SaharaJim, I'm not worried about dying. It's more of how I will go that bothers me. I don't want to linger on in pain for very long. I would just as soon go in my sleep, with my wife in my arms. That's how I want to go, letting her know how much I loved her.

**SaharaJim** · 05-13-2011 08:51 AM

Thanks everyone but I never had an "original thought" in my life. My beliefs are very much shaped by a solid Catholic upbringing. Whenever I think about the "other side" I am reminded of the passage in which Jesus learns of Lazarus' death. "Jesus wept"; some think this was a "mourning" but I always have believed that Jesus wept because he knew that he would recall Lazarus to life with all it's pleasures and pains and burdens.
I don't believe the "other side" has the burdens. IMHO