How precious is this Life...
We are born... grow up ... and eventually return to the unknown we once came from...
This is immutable, and while many disciplines offer some guidance on how to live and be, I would simply ask you a direct question:
“How do you define a Life well lived... What determines - for you - how well you’ve
lived ... ?”
And in this awareness ask yourself how this Life will benefit your next incarnation ...? [and if you don’t believe in reincarnation, then how does it affect your Afterlife...]
These are very, very important questions, for everything we do has consequences - and even those that appear small, may well have drastic results.
How will you know when your final time has come ... will you be ready ... ?
My mother, being a good Italian mama, fed us luxuriously. There was never a ‘simple meal’ that did not have at least 5 courses... indeed, food was how she showed us all how much she loved us, how much she cared and wanted to nurture us. Many are the Christmases where she would make - from scratch - 20-30 lasagnas to give away as presents for all her friends... Oh yes, she was a feast ...
So it came as no surprise that in her later years she suffered from high cholesterol and blood pressure... but, being a good catholic woman, she followed her doctor’s directions and faithfully took her medications, and gave up her food pleasures.
And sure enough, after two years of bland diets and other restrictions her doctor declared her to be ‘healthy !’ and took her off her meds, but strongly cautioning her to still follow her limiting regimen... which she did.
I saw her a month later and she was so happy that she’d achieved her goal [even though she was no longer allowed to express her care for us all]
I am glad I saw her then, happy that her doctor was ‘so proud’ of her... and a little dejected that what she had valued so munch throughout her life was now labeled ‘bad’.
Yes we had a ‘good time’, shopping for her new frozen meals her doctor so heartily recommended ...
She died three days later, passed in her sleep... her last meal was a half eaten
‘healthy meal’ ...