Death

In July 2004, four year old Reece Fleming was diagnosed with leukemia.

In May 2008, the disease worsened and Reece was told that he only had weeks to live.

One of Reece's dreams was to marry his 'special friend', Elleanor Purgslove.

Reece proposed to Elleanor at a laser tag party and his family arranged a pretend wedding where Reece and Eleanor could imagine being married.

They hired a limosine, had wedding rings, a fake priest, certificates and a fancy dinner afterwards.

Although Reece was very sick at the time, he had never been happier than on that day.

In the Iliad, Homer writes about how the God's envy man.

Homer reasons that this is because we are mortal, whilst the God's are not mortal.

Due to this mortality, we believe that each time we visit somewhere, it could be our last time visiting it. Each time we experience something, it might be our last time experiencing it.

As we enter each day, we do so we a realisation that as our days are limited, we will only really experience a few mornings.

There is a movie called the Bucket List which stars Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.

In this movie, both of the lead characters are told that they have a maximum of one year to live.

Most people, upon hearing such news, give up on life and do not recover. Jack and Morgan's characters, however, do the opposite and create a Bucket List.

We often hear about people on their death beds and the thoughts and quotes that they are famous for saying. In his wonderful short story, the death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy narrates the last few minutes in the life of Ivan Ilych, an accountant from Moscow, and describes the thoughts that are going on his head as looks back over his life.

Ivan lived a normal, organised and conventional life. He went to school, university, worked and then retired like most of us do. In fact, Ivan's story is literally identical to the life stories of most people alive today.

Whilst reflecting back on his life, Ivan asks himself a powerful question that we should ask ourselves on a continual basis.

Ivan asks what if my whole life has been wrong?

The following story from Wayne Dyer provides us with a very different perspective on life and death.

Imagine that in the womb there are two twins, ego and spirit.

As the baby is in the uterus, ego is simply saying that this is all there is. We are confined to a dark and damp experience. Spirit, however, tells us that this is just the start of the journey and is temporary and soon we will have a much better existence.

Spirit then goes on to explain to ego that there is life after birth. He tells ego that there is a great creative force, a mother, that when we are born we will be supported and loved by. In fact, we will even see her.

Death is as important to life as birth is.

Whereas birth teaches us that anything can be achieved, death is also a crucial teacher.

It teaches us that everything is changing and nothing is permanent.

Through this, it teaches us that all that we achieve must be valued, because it too will die.

Many people fear death as they see it as something that robs them of something, of life or loved ones.

One day, a man named Raj went to Buddha and asked him some questions.

He asked the Buddha why his mind was so clear and his was not. He asked why Buddha had so much compassion and he did not.

The Buddha replied to Raj and told him that he had only 24 hours to live.

Raj had always been told that Buddha was the wisest person alive and that he spoke only the truth.

Upon hearing the Buddha's words, he immediately began to worry. He realised how short he had to live and went to visit his parents and friends so as to spend time with those he valued.

There was once a Philosopher who went to a Priest and asked him what would happen to his body when he died.

The Priest told him that his body would be buried in the ground.

The Philosopher then asked what would happen to his soul.

The Priest replied that his soul would either go to Heaven or to Hell.

The Philosopher thought carefully and asked the Priest that if his body would be in the ground and his soul would be in Heaven or Hell, then where exactly would he be?

There is a Sufi saying that says one should die before they live.

There is great wisdom in this statement and in this philosophy of detachment.

When we 'die' before we live, we realize that nothing is permanent.

The house that we live in will not be ours when we die. Neither will our jobs, our jewelery, our business or our friends.

Perhaps, the most significant of this is that our bodies will not be ours when we die.