Reaching the 2nd half of life – Dying before you die
I’m not always one to share my opinion…because I feel I don’t really know anything. I do spend a lot of time thinking about this life.
Why not?
Today we were talking about the concept of being at peace and “dying before you die.”
I tend to think a lot about practicing death. If I were to die today, have I lived my life to the fullest? Did I touch people?
Gandhi said it so well when he said,
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
How many times have you heard this beautiful quote? It has withstood the test of time and it will continue to be a great thought process for all of us.
I enjoy switching the first word of both sentences with the word LOVE.
Love as if you were to die tomorrow. Love as if you were to live forever.
Love everyday unconditionally because you have one opportunity in this life, this moment. We may be gone tomorrow.
Richard Rohr’s quote, ‘God I give myself to you one more time. You are not taking away my life. I am giving mine to you,’ in my opinion is simply amazing. This is Trust 101. Because once we reach this point of peace, this point of eternal love, Rohr is right, we are trusting in a bigger path and we’re trusting that we do not ultimately control this life. It speaks to being at peace with the moment, being at peace with your enemies, and being at peace with yourself because at the end of the day, why were you born? Why do we die? Who is in control of those two events? I trust that it is something way Bigger than myself.
I love how our friend BC talks about this loving, God-aware thought process as ‘the second half of life.’ The first half is filled with wants and opportunities to feed your ego, trying to be better than your neighbor. Peaceful humans, ‘2nd half of life’ humans, are the ones who have begun to Trust and live for the minute, live for each other, and live like today is all we got.
I’m not sure I will ever fully see my 2nd half of life, a day where I fully trust and not worry or want more, but I feel thinking about it is moving me there. I’m grateful for these moments where I can lucidly feel something Bigger controlling my life.
I did some light research on ‘dying before you die’ and the first thing that came up was this awesome quote from Rumi titled Die Before you Die.
O Generous Ones,
Die before you die,
even as I have died before death
and brought this reminder from Beyond.
Become the resurrection of the spirit
so you may experience the resurrection.
This becoming is necessary
for seeing and knowing
the real nature of anything.
Until you become it,
you will not know it completely,
whether it be light or darkness.
If you become Reason,
you will know Reason perfectly
If you become Love,
you will know Love’s flaming wick.
~ Rumi
Die before you die. Trust. Love yourself. Love others. Bring that positive energy (PE) every damn day. Why not?
Any thoughts?!?
Thanks for sharing your “opinion” Brian!! Much to meditate on there! And i totally agree with your word change to love!!
But as to your opening remark “I’m not always one to share my opinion…because I feel I don’t really know anything.” That left me uncomfortable. It didn’t seem appropriate that we must have knowledge before we can offer an opinion. I see knowledge being of the head and opinion being of the heart. And for me, the heart rules!! That’s were I believe that God speaks to me – not in my head.
So I looked up the definition of opinion. Here’s what is says: A BELIEF HELD OFTEN WITHOUT POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE OR PROOF.
So please keep offering your opinions, DFBL. That’s what we call dialogue and it helps us all to examine and grow together.
Bob, thanks for commenting! Your affirmations are reassuring!
Yes, lol, there are many meditations in there, but its a start at getting some of my beautiful thoughts about life down on paper.
Its challenging and nerve racking sometimes sharing your beliefs with the world, or whoever finds themselves on LP 🙂 , but I will hold your comment close to my heart and try my hardest to continue to share beliefs I feel will benefit myself and others if even in the slightest way. Thank you.
LAB
Brian,
Love this post. Firstly, I empathize with your hesitation to share opinions. Throughout our travels and studies, we have found that the more we learn, the more we realize we don’t know. It’s humble of you to “read and observe” rather than “share and write.” However, as Bob so aptly points out, it is not necessary to have knowledge to share one’s opinion. Your message and mindset are so important and sorely needed today. Humility can sometimes be a deterrent to helpfulness. Be affirmed.
You touch on a lot of great points. I aspire to be more like the “2nd half of life” individuals that Bob speaks of…. those who are at peace with life, not fearful for what’s to come but instead fully prepared to die whenever their time on Earth is up. I’m so far from being there but it’s a journey 🙂
You talk about trust a lot. I define trust as the opposite of fear. Not feeling the desire to control the future. If we trust in God or something bigger then what is there to fear? What is there to control? No thing.
If we are present in each moment, is it even physically possible to worry about the future? A short but powerful quote I like is, “Have Faith, Not Fear.”
Fear is paralyzing, Faith is liberating.
I’d love to see you instill the same virtue of trust that you discuss above to be guided into writing and sharing more with the world. Many people (including you) will benefit greatly from this. The answer to the two questions you posed at the beginning of this post (If I were to die today, have I lived my life to the fullest? Did I touch people?) will undoubtedly be (as they already are) “YES.”
PE,
Paz
PS “Love as if you were to die tomorrow. Love as if you were to live forever” says it all 🙂
This is a great post Brian. Your open thoughts are so much appreciated 🙂
Agreed, “Love as if you were to die tomorrow. Love as if you were to live forever” does say it all. For me, it is true that when I am in times of struggle, resistance, or anger it is because I am not letting in compassion ~~ for myself and for others. When we are filled with love, we have no other choice but to create positivity and radiant light . . . *~
Thank you, thank you!