by Sita

Created on: May 13, 2010   Last Updated: September 24, 2011

What would you do if you only had a week to live? Would you live your life the same way you do now? People tend to think that being aware of death is morbid, or at best, a little creepy. Yet an awareness of death actually opens your eyes to see what really matters in life, and make you live a more responsible, even more positively focused life.

"Live like you are dying" sounds like some sort of terrible cliche, but if you ask anyone what they would do if they knew they only had a certain period of time to live, chances are they would tell you they would do things they loved one last time, see people they cared about, do things they never were brave enough to do or could find the time for in regular, everyday life. People dealing with the brink of death make terrific strides to right the wrongs they feel they may have caused in life, to forgive....to tell those that they love how much they care, even if they were never a person to do that before.

What, then, is wrong with living like you are dying? WIth an awareness of the fragility of life comes the beauty of it....life is precious because it is temporary, because it is loaned to us and most of us aren't sure just how much time we have left. As a nurse, I often see how, when someone is dying, suddenly the family flocks around, relatives and friends show up that could never before make the time or the trip, people who haven't spoken to each other in years come together and find, if not reconciliation, at least a sort of peace. But why should it take until those precious last moments for these things to occur? Why should people find remorse at never having said goodbye, or that the last words they spoke to a loved one were said in anger? We all know that one day, in some form or another, death will take us. Yet we push these things aside and go about life as if we were going to be here forever. We don't take the time to appreciate the little everyday moments, pushing them off for some unspecified "someday" that may or may not ever come. And far, far too often, we finally figure out what we missed out on when it's far too late.

When you have been touched by an awareness of death, suddenly you begin to see all the things that truly matter. It isn't the job, or the money...no one ever wishes for one more day to go to work and bring home a paycheck. They want one more sunset, one more day with their spouse and their children, one more day doing

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