Death is a Good Tool

This may just be my opinion but perhaps it's about time we all settled down just a little bit and got back to some basics, yes? It seems like our values need to be refreshed and acted upon. 

The major change that I see needing to happen right now is that we all learn what taking a deep breath is really all about.

Every single one of our lives is as fragile as a glass structure, and yet while we endure life's range of earthquakes, we keep taking those precious breaths. We are indeed resilient but often we are afraid to acknowledge and try to understand a very difficult concept that we all face; namely death. Death, rather obviously, is a scary thought for us to think about because of the fear and realization it brings. Be it the thought of our own or the thought of those we care about, we are deeply afflicted by this simple fact of life. But here is where things get a little interesting. Many of us would rather not focus on death as our attention is often directed toward life, right? Things like eating, dreaming, and exploring seem like something we would much rather do with our time! Life is definitely something I love to enjoy too!

However, our values have become so focused on living that we've lost our sense of death. Death is a great tool to use in the humbling of our attitudes and actions. Even thinking about it right now makes me focus on my breathing. Ever notice how the news usually covers events that are life threatening? Why do we rely on the commercialized news networks to remind us of how valuable our lives are? Now this may not apply to everyone but we all, at least in this country, are rather easily distracted from humbling ourselves to this sensitivity. 

Therein lies the secret to our connectedness. All of us sense, on one level or another, this change from life to death and death to life. Pretty amazing to think that the same carbon atoms that once sat at the bottom of the ocean now make up my arm! We share more with the environment than we are thinking about and herein lies the problem. The problem (or challenge as I like to think of it) is how do we reconnect ourselves to that level of humbleness that something like the concept of death gives us? Anyone who has ever had a close call with death or experienced someone close to them who has might just agree that your perception of life changes a little, lol. These close calls really give us a sense that at any moment the way we see things could greatly change.

Each of us have a sense of awareness that helps us to keep focused. That sense is something every animal comes to realize. A lion, for example, can incorporate an area consisting of hundreds of miles into its consciousness as it needs to to survive. How many of us have stopped to think of how far our consciousness reaches? Maybe the confines of our offices and living rooms? Perhaps entire regions such as Southern California or Northern Arizona?

Consciousness is a great teacher that educates us on what is essential for our survival. Turning a blind eye to learning and growing affects us all, not just one individual.