Death is staring too long into the burning sun and the relief of entering a cool, dark room.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the duality of life and death, comparing the intense experience of life to the relief that comes with death.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross illustrates the profound contrast between the struggles of life, represented by the burning sun, and the peace that comes with death, akin to entering a cool, dark room. It suggests that while life can be overwhelming and painful, death may offer a sense of comfort and escape from suffering.
In practice
This quote can be shared at a memorial service to reflect on the peace that comes after a life of struggle.
The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not "get over" the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.
The simple life on the farm was everything to me. Nothing was more relaxing after a long plane flight than to reach the winding driveway that led up to my house. The quiet of the night was more soothing than a sleeping pill.
The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well.
There is no joy without hardship. If not for death, would we appreciate life? If not for hate, would we know the ultimate goal is love? At these moments you can either hold on to negativity and look for blame, or you can choose to heal and keep on loving.
We're put here on Earth to learn our own lessons. No one can tell you what your lessons are; it is part of your personal journey to discover them. On these journeys we may be given a lot, or just a little bit, of the things we must grapple with, but never more than we can handle.
There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning.
I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin.
Sometimes the silence can be like thunder.
My experience in childhood and adolescence of the subordinate role played by the female in a society run entirely by men had convinced me that I was not cut out to be a wife.
What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically.
For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.
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