Perhaps it's only when we fully accept that we will diethat we can fully accept how alive we are rightnow.Death brings perspective, then. It brings usback to life and it asks of me, how, now, will I live? Afriend works at a hospice, and recently she cared fora man who just had days left. They talked about hischildhood, she tells me, and then she asked himwhat makes life good? She wrote down his words.It's"when we assume nothing," he said, "when we givemore than we take, when we need less, when wesmile often, when we dream big, when we laughfrequently, and when we find comfort in knowing how blessed we are.How blessed we are. Thepoet Rilke said, "Being here is so much." And whether you believe death is the end or, like me,that it is only the beginning, life is surely not about the time we have left - days, weeks, years? - but about the time we have now.

可能只有当我们全然接受人生必死的现实，才能意识到当下的人生是多么鲜活。死亡让人省视，让人回归生命。它诘问我要怎样生活。有一个在收容所工作的朋友告诉我，最近她照顾过一个只有数天生命的人。他们谈及了他的孩提时期，她问病人，是什么让生命美好?原话如下：“当我们不理所当然，当我们给予多过索取，当我们少欲少求，当我们常常微笑，当我们梦想远大，当我们时时开怀，当我们意识到人生多么宝贵而身心愉悦。”人生多么宝贵。诗人Rilke说，“活着，幸甚至哉。” 不管你认为死亡是终结，或者像我一样，认为死亡是开始，生命显然不在于我们还能活多久——几天，几周，几年?——而在于我们活着的当下这一刻。