The meaning of life ?

It’s so interesting to read all your posts and thank you for calling me young 3nanny6! Grandmajet, I am so sorry about your life situation and hope you have love and support. I know the only way to find peace is to try and live in the present but I can’t help hoping that there might be something after we die. But even to think of it as change as Peasblossom writes makes me less afraid:

“Doesn’t St Paul say “I show you a mystery. We shall not die, we shall be changed”.

Once, not so long ago, the matter that made us existed in another form and then it changed and became an embryo and then a human being. And we grew and valued what we had become. So much that we don’t want it to change.

Don’t fear change -or death if you want to call it that. Who knows what wonderful new state awaits us!”

I do think about it often. I wonder which one of us will go first! I believe in an after life so not too worried, just don’t want to be unable to look after myself or be in a lot of pain.

I practice a form of meditation and the teaching is that we are all energy and that when we die we join the energy that is all around us. We are just a drop in the ocean and eventually we join that ocean. The ancient egyptians tried to preserve what is on the outside, when really what matters is what is on the inside. The body is just a shell that will crumble one day but the lifeforce goes on and is constantly all around us. When we are born we take that first breath in and become an individual and when we die we take our last breath out. We should appreciate every breath until the last one. I find that comforting.

Blossoming

Death has long been just around the corner for me, but I refuse to live in fear. Every morning that I wake up is a bonus ?

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Death has long been just around the corner for me, but I refuse to live in fear. Every morning that I wake up is a bonus ?

I just live each day as it comes, have little adventures and enjoy the small day to day pleasures. Death itself, I suppose if we go to nothing we won't know it so it won't matter. If there is something, we'll find out.

I’m not a Christian. It’s just scientific fact. The matter that makes us cannot be destroyed. It once was something else before it became us and will be something else when our body no longer exists.

The matter that makes us will take infinite forms. There is no “death”. Only change.

BTW BBbevan it's not compulsory to read or for that matter comment.
It seemed quite clear what might be discussed by the title to me.

every day i do , i hate thinking that i will make my daughter full of grief .and my grandchildren . am not scared of dying .god is with me ,and i will be meeting my mum and other relatives . so i have to make each day the best that i can . i am living on borrowed time due to my health issues . so i do the things i need to do ,like my will/family history and my volunteer work .MAKE EACH DAY COUNT ......it something we cant get out of ...birth /marriage if any/life and death . but alive in christ...

BBbevan

What a happy little post !!!!!

We aim to please!!

Grandmajet can't imagine how difficult it must be with an incurable disease, Don't worry there is a God he will be there to take you home best wishes to you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, ,that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life
So if, for whatever reason, one does not ‘believeth’, one perishes? Not overly caring, if you’re not “in the club”

Occasionally the thought of dying and leaving this world crosses my mind, it is quite taboo to discuss this with people as many just want to get on with life and living.

Have any of you seen one of those sympathy cards for dogs?
There is one I like called the Rainbow poem and it is about
the dog happy and at peace playing happily and there is a bridge crossing over into the field the dog knows when it is time the owner will meet with him again and no more separation. I have two dogs at the moment and always tell them make sure you wait for me by that bridge I know they must think I am crazy but it comforts me.

Do hope your not too depressed MaggieT you are still a young woman with plenty of life to live.

What a happy little post !!!!!

grandmajet

Some times I'm exhausted trying to make the best of this 'last bit' (as Katie49) put it!!
Then disappointed in my self for not doing better, in the past and now.

The constant nagging in the back of my brain to make the best of every day, and that we only have one life is counterintuitive and actually destructive.

As one who has incurable cancer, I think about it every day, although I still try to find pleasure and fun in the same places that I always have. It is not so much dying as leaving those I love that upsets me. Also walking round the garden, making plans that I don’t know if I will see come to fruition. I can’t walk as far as I could, I can’t eat what I could, but I can laugh with my loved ones.
I don’t think there is an afterlife, it makes no sense to me, but we live on in a way through the memories people hold of us. I’m gently trying to make sure my husband will be able to do all the little bits and pieces that I have always done, and encouraging him to keep going walking, meeting with friends etc. I remember someone once saying that dying was like leaving before the end of a film! That sums it up - unless the world ended with an almighty bang and we all went together.

Peasblossom

Death is just a human concept. We say a living thing has died but really they have just changed one state of matter for another.

Doesn’t St Paul say “I show you a mystery. We shall not die, we shall be changed”.

Once, not so long ago, the matter that made us existed in another form and then it changed and became an embryo and then a human being. And we grew and valued what we had become. So much that we don’t want it to change.

Don’t fear change -or death if you want to call it that. Who knows what wonderful new state awaits us!

As one of my favourite songs says” One day at a time, sweet Jesus”, Loretta Lynn.

I would certainly contemplate Dignitas rather than have my house sold for me to be kept in care not been able to do anything for myself,No quality of life. and my children not having any inheritance from me. The only thing is I think that if I got dementia I would not have the chance to go to Dignitas.I do not think there is anything after this I think we are born and we die end of.....

I take a Christian viewpoint here, nothing to fear but everything to look forward to.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, ,that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life ‘

As I age I too think about leaving this world , family and friends. However I am here now !! and intend to make the most of it. It is not just older people who face the inevitable, many young people and children are aware of having a short time left. A young member of my family has terminal cancer , very distressing. So yes I am ageing but endeavor not to overthink my demise!!

Some people here seem to think there is existence after death. This does not seem ok to me. So I too would hope I went quickly without pain. And remember there is Dignitas

I quoted what my mum used to say earlier now the question gets me been thinking. I watched my dad have ill health for ten miserable years then a very sudden death. My mum died after a long hard life ending with terrible dementia.
Currently some probably think more about the meaning of life and death. Dwelling on illness as I do too is probably just part of it why do we have to suffer what is the point to it? It’s the unknown none of us knows the answer.

Since I turned 70, I have become a complete hypochondriac. Every ache or pain is potentially fatal. I get annoyed with myself as I realise other people have real illnesses.
It's also rather sad as my life hasn't been great and I'm spoiling this last bit.

I dont think about death other than to hopeful it wont be painful but I do dwell in the past regretting almost every decision.