Life and death, two unlikely things to be compared, but yet so similar in ways many of us could never imagine. So many times I see people waste their lives by not truly living at all. Instead, they focus on what happens after they are dead, or what happens tomorrow or next week. Don’t waste your life, because being alive…is different from living.


Life. When you say the word, what comes to mind? Lush green grass, or perhaps an hourglass with the time you have used and the time you have left. When I think of life, I think of a puff of hot air in the dead of winter, or a pair of eyes darting in every direction, trying to find its voice, and direction in a dark world. I think of light in a world of darkness and despair. I think of the complex feelings surrounding the human life. I think of sadness, and anger, of happiness and triumph. But above all I think of the new beginnings that are to be had in life, the ins and outs of being living and breathing. Life is complex. It deals with things that have minds of their own. These minds think about what is right and wrong, they breathe and see, they feel and touch, all the things that living things do, all the things that the dead cannot.


Death: The act of being dead. Plain and simple…isn’t it? Not really. To some, what happens after life is a bit hazy, and unknown. The only thing that we all seem to agree on is the name…death. It lingers—heavy on your tongue until long after you’ve said it. It sticks to your mouth, like a paste left out to dry. Its name is horrible and ugly, more toxic than the biggest oil spill the world has ever seen. Although death is often sought out as a bad thing, it doesn’t have to be…at all. You could simply look at it as the end of a great life that has been lived well, and to it’s fullest. Some may look at it as the beginning of a new life, in heaven. Death is something that in life we have many questions about. Will we be able to see, or hear, or smell? Will we be able to walk, or talk, or smile? The truth is we don’t know what heaven is going to be like, or what happens after death. All we know is that here, on earth, when something dies we see its body and we know that it can’t see us, or hear us, it’s gone. No life left to live.


Two steps in a cycle of life…we are born…and then we die. Life. Death. But is that really where it ends? Is that really where our journey stops? Some believe that both of these cycles are new beginnings, one into the world—and one into God’s house. But the controversy is whether death is the biggest lose in life, and whether death is really the end. One thing for sure though is that most of us won’t know until we get there. We have to trust in our instincts, and have faith in what we believe. Either way, Life and death are both beginnings—and ends. The difference is in which way you look at it.


Time slows, your heart stops, you see beautiful light, in the unforgiving darkness that encloses you. You are dead. Your hourglass has run out. You think about all the mistakes that you have made, and all the wrong turns you took. Your life is over. In our lives we take everything for granted. We complain until seemingly, our tongues fall out. And a thick, black substance seeps from our mouths as greed and remorse. Life and death in the eyes of a child might seem huge, and scary, but I am not scared to die, and neither should you be. You should live each day like it could be your final one. You have one world to change. You have one life. Live it.