Kathryn Mannix
I was utterly struck by these words the first time I read them. Kathryn Mannix is a palliative care specialist, a psychotherapist and an author who has spent her life caring for these with incurable and advanced illnesses; and wrote a great book called With The End in Mind from which this quote comes. I learned so much about death from reading that book. She is a wise woman.
I guess I just hadn't stopped to think that birth occurs somewhere in the day, rarely right at 12.01am; and that death truncates a day most often as well. But that every other day we have 24 hours in which to live and be.
It made me a bit sad, (and who knows why because really, I knew it already), that the day you die is a shortened day; you don't get to live it right to the end.
The flip side of the words for me tho is the reminder that in between those two days you get a full day, every day. You get the maximum amount of time in each day to do or be; to create; to live; to laugh; to help; to care; to make. And I guess the subtle reminder is to make the most of those days...
We moved these birds recently so we can see them better and they bring me joy each time I pass them.
It is startling to think of the two "incomplete" days. I'd never considered it from this perspective. We need to treasure all the days in between. I like the birds, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being startled too Stephanie! I am not quite sure why it struck such a chord with me, but it did. And those birds make me smile...go well.
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