Death, a close companion ..

I just put down the book "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Tolstoy. The story explores the torment of a dying man who frittered away his life. In his final hours, he had no meaningful deeds to recall, nothing to console him of a life well lived. "Ivan Illych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible". (Tolstoy)

On two occasions in my life, I saw death straight in the face. One was a decade ago when my father-in-law passed away unexpectedly at the age of sixty, brimming with life and with great hopes of enjoying his retirement. The other was when my daughter had a major surgery when she was barely a year old. There was a chance she would not survive.

Since then something in me changed forever. Death was no longer something morbid. Death has become a close companion walking hand in hand with life enhancing every aspect of it;
   reminding me of the transience of life;
   teaching me gratitude for the precious gift of my own life and that of our loved ones;
   keeping me firmly grounded;
   urging me to live a meaningful life with small acts of kindness, love and service;
   enabling me to die fully to every day to start life afresh again with every dawn.

"Death's stamp gives value to the coin of life; making it possible to buy with life what is truly precious" - Tagore

"It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death. He who is well prepared is he who knows that he is nothing compared with Wakan-Tanka who is everything; then he knows that world which is real" - Black Elk