Death& Dying?

Well, just look at all of the people that have done it. Seems like a pretty popular thing to do. If not popular then completely natural at least. I wonder if there are more dead people or more "alive?" I really don't think it should be feared simply because GOD is handling the whole thing.
I really do not fear death because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what is next is huge and at 50, I spent the first half of my life making the second half sore and tired. My knees, teeth, elbows, feet and a few other places take turns bothering me. When we wear out, I think passing on becomes more of blessing than a curse.

I am certainly not afraid of passing in. I believe in God and know he has a plan and we will take what we learned here and go on to a better place. We will be missed by our loved ones, that is a part of life. But we will live on in their hearts and memories. I think when we leave, as Magpro says, we are going to be ready. I for one do not want my loved ones to have to take care of me and have those memories in the end.

No, I do not feel we need to worry. God will take care of everything after death as he has taken care of us now.

Although I'm catholic, I have my doubts so I consider myself agnostic.

In some way, I'm scared in others I'm not!

Im not scared because, its our path, the moment we are born our clock is ticking, its a part of life. I want to so hard to believe that there is a heaven. And if there is, I have lots of loved ones up there, so I won't be scared, I know we will meet again. (thats my heart talking)

On the other hand, (its my mind talking) and it tells me don't be silly, there is absolutley nothing. We die, and that's it, we're gone!

So I could say I'm so confused and uncertain, I try not to think about the matter so much.

But I know its a very comforting thought to know that there is a heaven where we all go once we pass away and God will open his door for us!

I just wish I knew 100% that it was true

Have you ever meditated and thought about God so much that you felt pure love all around you? Experience this and you know there is God. When you feel God you know there is more and you believe his promises.

To be honest know I haven't! Wouldn't really know where to start!
Never felt anything like that in my life. But I know people who have and speak like you do!

There is clearly a separation that most people feel as a profound loss, and so this needs to be acknowledge in the process. Someone is leaving and the rest are left behind, nevermind for a moment that we all catch up to each other later (with all due respects to various religions, I am not at all sure about that part). While I am now certain we continue, I am frankly not sure in what manner. I hope to meet my maker since I have been forming a list of questions I would respectfully like to ask - things I don't understand in this here and now.... Babies being ill and stuff like that? But as Magpie points out death is as ordinary as being born, as living and breathing in many ways. In some cultures dying is very open and public almost, while here in the US is seems intensely private. I personally consider it the ultimate E-ticket ride LOL and hope to know that I am dying when I do -- none of that in your sleep stuff for me! Like Cassie, I sense we get to be enveloped in such unimaginably immense love that suddenly we understand where we didn't before. I think, having been close to death once, I got a glimpse of that very thing.

For the one dying, to be cared for and honored while this chapter of their being ends is very important. I am also with Magpie on this one-- by the time many of us go, we are ready to on many levels and that needs to be better understood in the US culture. I have witnessed several people and a few animals die. Some died well, some not. I can say that they each were a lesson in the wonder of life. How one lives their life influences how well one dies to some degree it seems, too.

The one that impacted me the most was a wonderfully wacky women and my AA sponsor for over a decade who oddly enough was teaching me how to LIVE while I was teaching her how to DIE in her hasty final days. We got a big laugh out of that! We were as close as two humans can ever be, I bet. I miss her and she died knowing I would, so there is that to comfort me. She broke the mold, as they say. I can always tell when I am especially missing her --- I'll suddenly see a flash of some woman down a store aisle who, from the back, looks just like her and my heart will leap for a split second until it realises. I like to think the wistful look that ends up on my face rather resembles the ones I saw her often make.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (I believe her name is) wrote several really insightful books with the most popular one being called On Death and Dying that you might look into for more information.

This is one of my favourite topics so please forgive me if I have been longwinded. I hope this perspective offers you more food for thought and I must say, another great thread started by you, Aqua. Thanks!

I may add, I had a loved one that died and we were so very close. She was across the country when she passed away. I was sitting and thoughts of her came across my mind and also I saw a veil flash by, it was as though I saw something but didn't. It was a transparent white nothing but something that passed in a flash. A few hours later her son called to say she had passed away and it was at the time I felt her presense. That gave me even more faith.

Val why wouldn't you think we would all catch up later?

I am not convinced that we stay in a recognizable enough form to catch up like that. I somewhat suspect (given what I have "seen" firsthand in my life so far) that this life now is something like a cocoon and that death makes for such a transformation that the "butterfly" on the other side, for lack of a better analogy, simply wouldn't have that kind of need? I know that sounds sort of sad but I have had many vivid impressions that repeatedly suggest that we don't fully understand it now and yet we do later -- rather like a child who wants only candy for dinner thinks when she can't have it, that is something to be sad about. Did that make any sense or answer it for you Krs? Some of this is not real firm in my mind too; I am still learning, exploring...