The ramblings of a VERY WISE older man.

Anyone who believes in immortality is not afraid of what lies beyond this earthly plane.........and thus, not obsessed with the small things of daily existence.......

I do believe that the spirit lives on. Our bodies are just a shell.
The soul/spirit is indestructible.........

Here is a comforting thought for anyone who has lost a close person in their lives.......or is contemplating their own ultimate ending........

Henry van Dyke: “A Parable of Immortality”: Also known as "GONE FROM MY SIGHT" and "THE SHIP"

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, "There she goes!"

Gone where? Gone from my sight - that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the places of destination.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There she goes!”, there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying...................

http://www.theribbon.com/poetry/gonefrommysight.asp

Above hyperlink has the poem in a nicely printed foremat for those who wish to print it out..........

THIS POEM IS USUALLY CALLED "THE SHIP".
I found it as my mom was dying of end stage Alzheimers and I was also, at the same time, digging deeply into my 10 generations back of genealogy and typing in all the long dead souls......family members I never knew, but that had at one time "a life"..........one can also learn something about the longevity of their forbears by doing genealogy research.........I found it comforting and at the time it "rang a bell".........."someone will be waiting on the other side".
At our age now, there will be hordes of them. So, don't sweat the small stuff, take time to smell the roses and enjoy everything life has to offer now. Don't worry about dying or whether life is too short.....just live it without rigidity.

That pretty well says it ALL.:bigbow:

Thank you for this beautiful parable.

For me I realized that life is too short when I truly found the one for me. When you feel like you want to spend every day with the same person then the thought "life is too short" started to creep in. There is not enough time to do all the things you want to do with the one you want to do them with. I planned a very big vacation this past year and told my wife we need to do this now while we can still enjoy all the activities we may not be able to do later on in life. Strike when the iron is hot I suppose.

If That's All There Is My Friend
 

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]Do you think life is too short? Relative to what? I have a sibling that really gets depressed just thinking about the issue of dying. He can't bring himself to the reality that this earthly existence will go on without him.

I on the other hand had long ago come to terms with my mortality. Death is never going to be fair. Death under any circumstance will always be sudden and unexpected even with those on their death beds expecting to die. It will always be said that the good die young. It will always be said that s/he died too young. Death will always be tragic. People will always say nice things about you when you die. Life and death are two sides of the same coin. And as long as there are people still alive that knew you then you will remain alive.

I had long ago when accepting my mortality stopped agonizing myself about the existence of the hereafter. I'll just hope for the best because up to now I have had a decent run and that is all that we can expect. And if that all there is then that's all there is my friend

:agree: Well put.

I think for those who live life fully, they could use a whole other round. Those that simply exist in it, it is a wonderful perk.

My best friend is a family doctor. He recently told me, the good Lord will give you the first 50 years, the second 50, you have to work for!

Thanks, good post! Seems like a healthy outlook.

Article in AARP, "When life is too long?

A woman the youngest of nine siblings said:

If you live long enough, you bury everyone you ever loved, which is too long.

"Figuring out how to not die is my bucket list". :smiley:

We went north this week to visit family and to see our granddaughter's first home on her very own. She recently graduated college and quickly found a job in her career choice. We were able to see her sweet small apartment and add a few things she was wishing for.

I thought on the long trip back here about how someday she might be the grandparent in the same situation and hoped she too had such a happy experience and wished that I could see her joy and peace in having just such a simple and good thing happen to somebody that she loved. BUT, we cannot go on forever, the way I look at it is to squeeze the juice out of each GOOD moment granted us and replay it back when we have time. Let the bad stuff go and try to make the lives of others a little better for your passing by.

One definition of success is to have made one life breathe easier.

Excellent post Gracie.

It seems some are taken way too soon and some linger on suffering way too long. We get many choices in life but the short or the long of life is not one of them. Make that phone call and make peace with that certain person and forgive them even though they may not forgive you. No matter how long your life it is too short for hatred or grudges. Eat some ice cream, smell the roses and take that trip you been thinking about and enjoy the ride because your station will come soon enough.

Wonderful post. I have been working on that very thing the last few months, and ya know what? I think I am the one getting the most out of it. It feels good to get rid of bad baggage.

If you ar a Christian, you understand that life is eternal, don't you?

Is that too long?