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Using the Fear -
With a global pandemic sweeping across the globe, now is the time to look hard at your life. Imagine yourself no longer being on this earth. Imagine your loved ones or friends no longer being on this earth.

What comes up for you as a result of that?

Regret? Seize the moment to make amends.
Loss? Make the time to express your love directly.
Anger? Adjust your behavior to limit risk.
Sadness? Share your sadness with a loved one.

Whatever arises from your contemplation of death, take that reaction and use it to make your current situation better. Turn your reaction into a response.

Don't wait for some far-off moment to say or do the things that will bring you peace. There is only this moment. Use it to it's fullest. When you arrive at the gate of death, know that you've fully lived.

I will be spending quality time truly connecting with my friends and family and letting them know how much they mean to me, and how much I love them.

As one human to another;
I love you, care for you and value you.
I want you to be happy and loved.
Truly.

ZenPuppy 4 Mar 11
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36 comments

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1

I have a harder time contemplating my loved ones, and friends, not being here, than I do my self not being here. I'm quite healthy now, though I am in the age demographic for vulnerability, but, after the initial, quick, fear of dying, I will settle down and accept it, calmly, I think.
I see my life in terms of "What a long, strange trip it's been," and have learned from the dumb shit I've done, the people I've hurt, mostly in the dark past of my youth. "The unexamined life is not worth living," is an important perspective, for me.
Please do not get the idea that I am seeing myself a s a fucking saint. I'm just contemplating.
Yesterday I was part of giving a friend the best birthday gift, just a simple photo, she may ever have received. She was sooo happy. Me too.

11

It's a pity people and governments didn't react as strongly about climate change as they did about the coronavirus.

Well, not this(USA) country!

@BirdMan1 ok yours and mine lol. We all get insular from time to time. And I at least am on an island.

I knew this reaction felt odd in a very real way but couldn't say why. That's it. That's why they're reacting strongly in response, because everyone's expecting extinction to come along fast, and it's hard to blame them. I feel that climate change is going to kill us off and it's already begun. I regularly remind people that there are other viruses being released from melting ice, that humans have never seen. The cure may be some long forgotten plant. To quote Leonard Cohen, "Everybody knows that the plague is coming. Everybody knows that it's moving fast. Everybody knows that the naked man and woman, is just a shining artifact of the past."

@MsDemeanour
and I certainly I would not wish to stop watching whales in action when time allows me to. It's an awesome sight.

@MsDemeanour that's one heck of a big island!

Hell yes..its a shame.. it seems some people are some forms of government only react when they have no other choice but there are many people here that are trying to work hard to make this is a sustainable planet

10

As a cancer survivor I live each day as if it were my last. Thats all I can do.

9

This is all much too doom-laden for my liking. Our very living carries with it the risk of dying, when we wake up each morning we never know if we’ll still be there at bedtime...accidents, heart attacks, seizures, knowing this doesn’t prevent us from getting on and living our lives. There is a risk that we may catch this virus in due course, but if we follow the advice we can lessen that risk, and unless we have some underlying health condition, the chances are high that we will get well again in a week or so even if we do. I’m 75 and am probably in a higher risk demographic, but I’m not panicking, just taking reasonable precautions and using my common sense. I know that I’m loved, my friends and family know that I love them, I don’t intend to start alarming them and myself by any declarations that indicate that I believe doomsday may be approaching for me or them. If my time is up, then it will be up...I hope I will be remembered fondly and trust I’ve made a difference to those lives I’ve touched, but I’m certainly not anticipating that to happen any time soon.

I’m in total agreement with your comment!😘

Wonderful perspective!

8

Wash your hands....I am sure that works better than religious hocus pocus.

7

My mom died at 45, I was 14. So I've known most of my life that old age is not guaranteed.My kids know I love them and how proud I am of them, I tell them all the time. I can't say I've had an easy life, but it has been a good one, I've done some stuff most people never get to do. I've raised some strong, independent, smart, fabulous daughters, and I have two amazing grands. I have stuff that will last beyond my time that says I was here. If I die tonight I know everyone will be OK. I better not die, I have a quilt to make for the grandson, and an afghan for one of the girls, and a birthday party on Sunday.

My father, 45, is the one I lost at 14. It never leaves me even though I am now 61 so here's a hug. When friends suffer loss of a parent I tell them to be happy they got to know that parent as an adult. Not everyone gets that privilege.

@rainmanjr I missed my mom most when I became a mom. She would have rocked the grammy stuff. So I am thrilled to get to know the grands, and I want to be as involved with them as I can be. One of my daughters was born on my mom's birthday which was amazing. And two of my nieces have my mom's middle name. Mom's first name was Minnie, and no one is going to name a girl Minnie in this world. When my oldest was expecting she told me if the baby was a girl she would have given her mom's middle name, which was Mae. Alas, we got Austin but he's pretty amazing.

@rainmanjr You bet! My mother died before I was 5, and my father at his 45, though he;d been hospitalized since Mom died, with MS,

7

Today I sorted out the stuff in top left-hand drawer o my desk. Among the unexpected treasures are five USB flash drives from various decades., six nail clippers and eleven pairs of reading glasses. Tomorrow I will check out the flash drives.
There are also dozens of AAA batteries. I will test them all; many., many insulin syringes, a 35 mm film container and, to my delight a tiny cellophane bag of seeds of Papaper somniferous which I will sow in the spring. All this because I am on the hit list for the Coronavirus and need to put my house in order. Can't wait to see what's in the right-handed drawer!

Somniferous, huh?
This might be a good time to check out a Death Café, a place where we can talk about mortality openly:
[deathcafe.com]

We do come, and we do go.

Hul Gil, as the Sumerians called it. I am a big fan. You noticed that it is the seeds I am excited about. I am a gardener and thereby hopeful. Not sure I want to focus on death, mine or others, with any seriousness. But thanks for the link!

I think folks with pre-existing conditions can be okay with hospital intervention as you heal. So stay close by until this thing dies out for the year. That's my plan!

@SukiSue I don't have it yet. I live alone and plan to stay that way. Out in the country where no one visits. have plenty of toilet paper, have great doctors and am too mean to die ( my grandkids' opinion) Nevertheless, I am now applying the Swedish Death Cleaning principles, also, I want to make sure that no embarrassing photos, letters, and objects are left behind in my house.

@Spinliesel Pretty much the same here!

6

What if some of us have been doing that all along? Not everyone is a loser.

Thats a garsh comment

@Simran123 Respectfully, I agree with you about the second part, but think the initial question is valid.

6

what if what comes up is relief or happiness or contentment? what then? Not everyone fears death or being dead.

This is where I am. People don't get it. They feel we should all be thrilled about this experience in a way that denies the inevitable end of it. Death has graced my life over 20 times so it's been kind of a major subject and I look forward to it. Nor does that mean that I'm suicidal. I'm not. Realistically, however, life has far more pain in it than happiness yet we are a happy species.

6

It is officially a pandemic , according to the World Health Organization , and you , your frineds , and loved ones , would have a much better chance at a longer life , if you simply left them alone , and only connected to them over the internet .

6

None of the above.
Death is inevitable.
No one here gets out alive.

@motrubl4u Keep on trucking!

5

I don't imagine or think about any of that. No pain, no guilt trips, etc. Very little worry really.

5

None of the above. Dead is dead. I've told my loved ones I loved them. Once gone, they will deal - "everyone" has to deal with loss. Loss is natural.

I think what he was actually talking about was living now.

@dare2dream Exactly. How we choose to live this day.

5

Wait . . .
Don't you all do that every day?

4

It’s all part of life, stuff happens, strange that someone with Zen in their title wants people to examine their emotions about future events.
Each moment to its measure 🙂

Exactly. This post is more akin to that of a preacher.

4

No need to wait for a pandemic.

4

Shall I remember for the umteenth time how I tried to give love to a dead fish?
Shall I once more appeal to my asshole child to stop being an asshole?
Shall I once again ponder how my discoveries are met with yawns?
Shall I bequeath my inventions to a species that is unworthy?
Shall I again cast my pearls before swine?

It's nice. It's nice for as long as it lasts. Except for the pain. And the mosquitoes and the spiders.
'Meaning' is just a word like 'why.' Meaningless really. As is death.
I'm not much looking forward to the dying part.
Think of your phone as a living thing. It eats electricity, and you spend your hours staring at its asshole.
There's your purpose of life.

4

Even before Corvid was on the loose, I had arrived at the conclusion that Mama Nature is finding ways to correct a grave mistake, and eliminate all humans. It feels like it's time. I feel at peace with the idea of no longer being. Me - or anyone else. Bye-bye !

4

What comes up as a result for me is thank fuck for that!

A lot less self-indulgent creatures to fuck over the backyard that I live in with my people.

And hopefully, when the pandemic is over, we can have an end to the scaremongering shit about a pandemic that will wipeout the world because it will be another of the Four Horsemen unsaddled.

The plague of the medieval Europe had a positive outcome in that the exploitation of the people by the church and feudal lords had to end because there was little labour to work. The people started to take their power back and invoice the privileged for their time.

Could be a major blow to neoliberalism which would not be a bad thing!

3

This post is so full of questionable assumptions, I hardly know where to begin! I question the value of any revelations/“enlightenment” based in fear; I question the propriety of fear as the reaction to the prospect of death. I do not equate death with “leaving this earth.” Unless you are a billionaire willing to pay Elon Musk to rocket your remains into space, they pretty much stay here, and your successors — mostly bacteria — will carry on your good work. “Making amends,” finding “peace,” thinking death is a “gate” rather than a wall (or compost heap), all these ideas smack of a religious world view tainted by christianity and its metaphors. If one is frightened by death now, then I wonder if one has been paying attention previously. I think everyone who lives, lives “fully” according to the time and means available, whether we judge it to be for good or ill. I DO applaud your focus on others - “friends and family” - and being aware of and addressing one’s emotions, but would hope those are bases to be touched throughout one’s life. Finally a big “no you don’t” to the preposterous claim to love, care and value people like myself, who you do not know! I think this is an assumed abstraction and find it presumptuous and insulting. I also think you mean well, and so urge you to re-examine some of these assumptions and dump the claptrap.The good stuff that is in there can stand on its own.

3

Thank you for this. Just keep connect 6-10 feet distant 😉 My mom died last year and in her last days said our Unitarian Universalist religion and her own humanism gave her great comfort. She was grateful she didn’t believe in an afterlife because she was done living. She found the thought of continuing on in some other form was horrible. I’m glad she had the comfort of death being final. Her pragmatism helped me get my personal effects and relationship in order. I hope not to die soon, but if I do, it’s all part of the natural order of things. No regrets.

UUNJ Level 8 Mar 12, 2020

Good post. In line with my philosophy. I never believed in any of the heaven and hell hogwash, or St. Peter meeting us at the Pearly Gate. After we die we won't exist anymore. Makes no sense to worry about it, or even think about. Always remember that without death we wouldn't have been born. We must accept nature on her own terms.

3

Sounds like religious spiel to me.

@FrankA You, friend, are jumping to unfounded conclusions about me. I have heard and seen words similar to yours uttered and written by people of religion throughout my life, with no practical, material assistance to accompany them.
I have spent MY life supporting people by physical deeds, even when so doing put my own life at risk, because, having grown up in Africa, I believe in practical humanity.

@FrankA Actions speak far louder than words. Have you, for instance, put your life in danger by helping someone escape from a dictatorial regime, knowing full well that if you were caught the pair of you would be tortured and killed? I have.
Have you gone without food, to feed someone with a greater hunger than yours? I have.
I have no interest in "empathy" when used to mean "piety".

@FrankA No wonder you are a preacher, not a do-er.
I was taught to help others without expecting praise or publicity. My wife likewise.

@FrankA I don't advertise it. I have merely quoted a couple of instances to you. You are too full of your ministerial pomposity to appreciate it.
Consider this a chastisement to yourself and in future mollify your preaching.

3

Exactly the correct course to take.

Thanks for your insight.

3

We're all gonna die!!!

No shit.

2

Just absolute non sense

2

Absolutely true in sooo many ways I just want to spend more time with them and gather family stories

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