Live This Life (Follow-up to Terminal)

A few days ago my thoughts were focused on the fact that we are all "terminal." Today my mind turns to the things within us that drive us to keep on living. We have likely all known someone who planned to "live a hard life, have a good time, and die young" only to be surprised when they managed to achieve some measure of greater age and found that they did not want to die. Agatha Christie once said,

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly despairing, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."

Similarly, Dylan Thomas wrote,

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

There is certainly something within that keeps us striving to live at almost any cost; and I would not want to discourage anyone from choosing to stay alive. Perhaps the best we can do is determine to know that we are indeed dying a little every day; and then, also know that every moment we have on this earth counts for something. We can choose how we will live these days we have on earth. There are many who choose to live each one in pursuit of personal gain. There are also many who choose to help others achieve a measure of success. Still another group seeks to "Love the Lord [their] God with all [their] heart, soul, strength, and mind and love [their] neighbour" as themselves. (Luke 10:27) The question I must ask myself is, "How will I live and die upon this earth?"