Fear

Fear makes up a normal response to every persons life. From the fear of the saber toothed tiger to the fear of the unknown. Fears like fear of cancer, fear of unemployment, fear of poverty and homelessness, fear of heart attacks and strokes, fear of diabetes, fear of war. So many real things to be afraid of.

Because of MSA I have learned that I am no longer afraid of some of these things. People say not to reuse plastic bottles as I could get cancer. So? Many people are afraid of so many things that are no longer of importance to me. No more worry about breast cancer or other cancers, no more worry about cholesterol, no more fear of many unknown diseases. Yes, I am concerned about H1N1 but I take reasonable precautions and use hand antibacterial lotion whenever I go anywhere. I also wash my hands repeatedly. I am not saying I have a death wish just because I am no longer going to worry about so many aspects of everyday life. I just know that, from what more than one doctor has said, it is better to die of anything else than letting this disease run the full course.

I have written a very detailed and specific Advanced Care Directive to avoid unnecessary medical intervention. I wear a DNR bracelet with the name of my primary care and my neurologist on it. However, I have been told by several doctors that they do not follow such guidelines and will do everything in their power to keep me alive. I find this strange as I have always thought the doctors have to follow your own directives.

The most common fear is that of death. As I mentioned in an earlier post, death is a friend to be welcomed when life takes a turn for the worst. I believe we have a soul that lives on and that we will be reunited with our loved ones after death. In discussions with my therapist, I have started to believe that even those people who treated us badly and were abusive, will be healed and whole after death and their true loving spirit will be available to us.

Many famous individuals have made statements about death. I am including a few.
One of the most meaningful to many people who suffer from fatal illnesses is by Gilda Radner written shortly before she died, I wanted a perfect ending. Now I have learned, the hard way, that some poems do not rhyme, and some stories do not have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what is going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.
Anais Nin wrote, People living deeply have no fear of death.

Amelia Burr writes similarly, Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes, Death? Why this fuss about death. Use your imagination, try to visualize a world without death! ... Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil.

John Muir, the famous naturalist, wrote, Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.
And, finally, a quote by a famous Buddhist, Songyal Rinpoche, ...when we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings.

All of these people, and many thousands of others, have written of a life well lived holds no place for fear of death. Death is a natural occurrence of life. We start dying at the moment of conception.

Think how boring immortality would be. To live forever may be some people?s wish, but I think life holds more excitement, more time for spiritual growth, when we are aware that our span of years in this body is limited. These are a few of the reasons I do not fear death. I fear suffering, but not death. I believe this fear of suffering is common to all people around the globe. So, be not afraid. for fear is the enemy, not death.