Siggy’s Blurbs

‘Life is but a vapor.’  King Solomon’s words in the bible.  If that is true and it is so what’s the point?  Your life will be over before you know it.

He tempers those words in the Old Testament with the statement and I am paraphrasing:  It is a gift to enjoy our life.

The Greek has several words for the word “time” and right now they escape me.  Nevertheless, one is means the chronological passage of time and another means the significance of that point in time.

It is true, time seems, in retrospect, to flee you but not all points have similar value to you.  It is the points in time that have significance to us so don’t despair over the passing in time.

Cherish the moments you have been given for there is no more precious gift you can be given to you than today.  We all have so much and none of us knows exactly how much.  And that makes our time on earth here that much more valuable.  We never know when it is going to run out.

Tags: Bible, cherish the moments, don't despair, Greek, King Solomon, life is a gift, Life is but a vapor, Old Testament, passing time, precious gift, time, time flees, time is valuable, time runs out, today is a gift, what's the point?
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What are we really afraid of when it comes to death?  I will try to explore some of my fears.  I am afraid of dying alone.  Most people want to be surrounded by their loved ones when that moment occurs.  People often die alone in hospital beds.

One fear I have as I become older, I become afraid of  losing my independence–of becoming dependent on others to take care of all my needs.  No one wants to suffer.

There is always the fear my life has been in vain, that I have squandered my most precious resource–my time.  I read obituaries and feel that person’s life has been summed up in a few paragraphs.  And that is it.

I have to remind myself that it a gift we have received to enjoy the life God gave us.  I am always afraid that I have become the cantankerous man I have often seen in passing.

Someone who hobbles around and the only joy this person gets is to complain about his ailments.  I do not want to become that person and my constant prayer is that as I age I want to grow old with grace.  That thought has been more in my consciousness lately.

Tags: afraid of death, cantankerous man, complain about ailments, consciousness, constant prayer, daily needs, die in hospital beds, dying alone, enjoy life God gave us, fear of losing independence, fears, grow old with grace, joy, life in vain, life is a gift, life summed up, loved ones, obituaries, precious resource, squandered time, suffer
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Why can’t people talk openly about death?  It is a mystery but so what.  Death claims us all.  The mortality rate is 100 per cent but no one wants to talk about it.

We act as if it is a curse.  When death occurs in a hospital, patients are just whisked away as if they were never there.  No one want to die alone.  Dying has become very impersonal.  Thus the hospice movement.

All this is running through my mind when my kidney function worsened and my nephrologist said she might put in motion dialysis and I found out only one third of patients on dialysis survived five years and another said 20 per cent died the first year.

All of a sudden it looked as if I will never see seventy– much less the age my parents died (my Mom was eighty and my Dad was ninety).  I am sixty-one.

It has been three weeks since my last visit with my nephrologist and I was depressed.  I needed to talk about my condition but it was not so easy.  People do not talk openly about death except in passing at best.

I even had difficulty with those closest to me–my wife.  On one level we all know we are going to die but we act as if that is never going to happen.  I just asked for one thing:  I wanted to die with grace.  I just wanted to talk about it and there was no one.

Tags: 61 years old, act like we will never die, dad, death is a mystery, depressed, dialysis, die alone, die with grace, difficulty talking about death, dying impersonal, hospice, hospital, kidney function, Mom, mortality rate 100 percent, my parents, my wife, needed to talk, nephrologist, no one to talk to, not a curse, patients whisked away, talk openly about death
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