I want to share with you what I learned in one of my worksheets about life and death. First, let me tell you the first given scenario:
You are lying in a hospital bed. You have stage 4 colon cancer. You have no problem paying the bills since you are a rich man. But nobody, except for the doctor and hospital staff, is with you. This is due to the fact that you despised your family for not believing in you and left them to pursue your dreams.
One day, an angel appeared and told you "You only have a week left to live. Within that span of remaining time, God is giving you a chance to forgive your family in one condition: your life will end the moment you utter your forgiveness to your family. If you do not forgive them, you will get an additional week to you."
The question is, what would be my response to the angel? Here's what I say,
I will tell the angel that I will choose to forgive my family even if it cost my life. If I choose to live for an additional week but not having anyone especially my family besides me before I die is more painful than death itself. I want to die with no regrets and hatred because I can finally die at peace. I also believe that forgiving my family is what God wants me to do. If I die the moment I forgive them, I will accept death happily.
Here's another story from Leo Tolstoy's A Confession and Other Religious Writings that gives symbolism about life and death:
There is an old Eastern fable about a traveler who is taken unawares on the steppes by a ferocious animal. In order to escape the beast, the traveler hides in an empty well, but at the bottom of the well, he sees a dragon with its jaws open, ready to devour him. The poor fellow does not dare to climb out because he is afraid of being eaten by the ferocious beast, neither does he dare drop to the bottom of the well for fear of being eaten by the dragon. So he seizes hold of a branch of a bush that is growing in the crevices of the well and clings on to it. His arms grow weak and he knows that he will soon have to resign himself to the death that awaits him on either side. Yet he clings on and while he is holding on to the one branch, he looks around and sees that two mice, one black and one white are steadily working on their way around the bush he is hanging from, gwaning away at it. Sooner or later, they will eat through it, and the branch will snap, and he will fall into the jaws of the dragon. The traveler sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish. But while he is still hanging there, he sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the bush, stretches his tongue, and licks them.
My interpretation is that this story symbolizes Life and Death. First, let's talk about death. The overall meaning of the story is that we cannot escape death. No matter what road we take or which direction we go, the moment our time has come to an end, death will always chase after us. This means that death is inevitable. Then, let's talk about life. When the branch that the traveler is holding was about to snap, he sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the bush stretches his tongue, and licks them. It means that life has so much to offer and it gives us courage, not to be afraid of death. As the traveler faced death, life still gave him something sweet to remember until the end of his life.
Death is an experience that will happen to every one of us. Death is certain yet unpredictable. It can happen anywhere and anytime. We cannot escape death and we can do nothing to decide and stop our death. However, there are things we can do to make our lives better while we're still living.
For me, death symbolizes life. It means that we do not live forever and our life will always come to its end and so we should live a life the way that will make us happy and feel contented. We should not be afraid of death. Instead, we should make sure to live a life without regrets and fulfill our dreams so that we can say that we live our life to the fullest. Death may happen anytime. Therefore, should make everyday count and create beautiful memories with our loved ones. This is what death wants to tell us. Life and Death are indeed, connected. We cannot choose and decide how we die, but we can always choose what kind of life we want to live.
Life is about dreams and ideas. The greatest gift we have ever received was to be born and to be alive. In order to return this gift, we need to live life the way we truly want to live and not the way how others dictate us. We only live once. When we die, we cannot return and do the things that we haven't done when we are still alive. We should not be afraid of death. We should be afraid of dying without achieving our dreams and goals we have in life. Show our care and affection to our loved ones while we still can and most importantly, learn to forgive and live without resentment.