My pain is under control and I'm terribly happy - it sounds weird to say, but I'm as happy as I've ever been in my life. I used to think I'd rather be hit by the proverbial bus, but having a couple of months knowing this is coming has really helped me both do the boring 'death-min', but also get my thoughts and prepare myself, and feel so accepting of what's to come. It's been such a great bonus, actually.
The book is called A Beginner's Guide to Dying, but really what I'm trying to convey is how enjoying life to the full kind of prepares you for this. In some ways I was lucky that my life and my career have taken me to quite a lot of places where death is more a part of life than it is for us in the West.
Seeing people there for whom death is such a part of life - they lose children, they don't know where the next meal is coming from - has really helped me. I've also been a Samaritan for the past four years. In some cases you are on the line while people end their lives, so I think death has been more a part of my life than for many people.
#life-reflections #facing-mortality #acceptance-of-death #life-experiences #coping-with-terminal-illness
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