Death is staring too long into the burning sun and the relief of entering a cool, dark room.
Elisabeth Kubler-RossRead
Those who learned to know death, rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about life.
Interpretation
Embracing the inevitability of death can provide valuable insights into how we live our lives.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross emphasizes that understanding and accepting death as a natural part of life allows individuals to grow and gain wisdom that can be shared with others. Instead of fearing death, those who confront it can lead lives rich in meaning and teach others about the significance of existence.
In practice
During a speech on personal growth, you might share this quote to illustrate the importance of facing fears.
Death is staring too long into the burning sun and the relief of entering a cool, dark room.
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.
Decidedly it will never have been given to me to finish anything, except perhaps breathing. One must not be greedy.
The existence of forgetting has never been proved: We only know that some things don't come to mind when we want them.
It is to this silence [contemplative prayer] that we all are called.
I have no religion,β says Borneau, βbut I respect the religion of others. Religion is sacred.β Why this privilege, this immunity?... A believer creates God in his own image; if he is ugly, his God will be morally ugly. Why should moral ugliness be respectable?
What, then is law [government]? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
I began thinking about my skeleton, this solid, beautiful thing inside me that I would never see.
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