With Covid-19 causing many deaths in the US and everywhere on the planet Earth, this blog title is sadly realistic for people dying “before their time” or what we would think would otherwise be before their time. Who among us is ready for when our last moments on Earth arrive?
None of us or perhaps a very extreme few of all the billions of people on Earth.
However, we don’t consciously choose which moments are our last moments. It is a sober experience to consider. This experience is seemingly forced upon each and every person that gets Covid-19 – to consider the outcome – recovering or dying. Along with this experience forced upon us, is what we assume is part of the experience – looking back on our life –
“…when there’s no more lying
about living or dying,
when there’s nothing left,
but life or death.”
Usually we don’t look back at our life, unless we’re forced to … like some people who are in the hospital, either recovering or dying from Covid-19, but alone and separated from family, …
In a person’s final moments, I don’t think anyone on their deathbed thinks…
I wish I’d spent more time at the office.
or
I wish I’d watched more television.
or
My regret is that I didn’t get better at video games.
Many are dying from Covid-19, right now, … and dying from many other things. As I mention above, some are dying alone, with no family around them – away from those who love them or they love.
Are their last questions to themselves:
“Should I have shown more disrespect to others in my life?”
Who among us dying in a hospital bed might think:
“I wish I would have had even greater resentments and bitterness towards people in my life?” as they lie in the hospital bed hoping they could see their loved ones.
or “I wish I could have placed more guilt and shame on people with whom I’ve been in contact.” while their family and friends are somewhere else.
In the same way, who among us would consider,
“I wish I could have blamed more people for problems in my life and problems in the world”,
or
“I wish I could have been even more condemning and judgemental of people.”
Sadly, I can’t help but think that there are many of us human beings who are walking around in the world, making the choice to be bitter, to blame, to condemn, placing shame and guilt, choosing these attitudes in our lives without thinking about it, not dying from anything at this time in our lives, and not looking back on ourselves and the life we live.
But, when we give ourselves the gift of thinking about it, at anytime we can consider other questions to look at how we’ve lived our lives so far – questions usually kept back to only ask ourselves on our death bed:
Did I ever love anyone?
… so that they could know what being loved is?
Did I ever forgive anyone?
… anyone needing forgiveness who was not a friend or family or who I knew?
Was I ever kind to anyone?
Did I ever show mercy to anyone?
… anyone who was not someone I liked or loved or even knew?

Did I ever help comfort anyone suffering or in pain?
Was I ever patient with anyone who desperately struggled and needed it?
Did I ever experience inconvenience, discomfort, or even suffering for the sake of the lives of any others?
Did I ever feel compassion towards anyone?
Was I ever unselfish with what I had, in any way with anyone?
Did I ever give of myself for the benefit of someone else’s life?
Was I ever humble among others who had less?

If we’re an average human being, then we’re not monsters, and then, in some ways, we can indeed say “Yes” to many of these questions, which, obviously, in our last moments of life, will be the more important questions to us. But yet, we don’t have to wait. We can ask ourselves these questions at any time simply as reminders to ourselves to keep on keeping on – like when we wake up each morning, or when we go to bed each night.
*******
“In a world with no forgiveness and no mercy, there will be no Peace on Earth.
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men – will happen when people bring forgiveness, mercy, compassion and loving kindness into the world.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2020, by Jodie Senkyrik)
“God bless us, Everyone.”