10 Things To Do Now Before You Die
What to do for Yourself & the Earth for the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day
- Begin your journey on the river of life and death. When you consciously “put your canoe in the river of life and death” be aware that this river will have challenges along the way. Find the gift in looking at your own death: the preciousness of your relatively brief life. Tell your loved ones today how much you love them. Say it often enough (for them). Say it every day (for you). Say it every day because today or tomorrow could be your last day.
2. Appreciations: Find someone or something you enjoy in life every day. Appreciate them. Ask to be forgiven (if need be) or offer forgiveness to them.
3. Be in the moment. Smell a rose; feel the warmth of the sun on your body; listen with your full attention and your heart to a co-worker. Share something you love in this life with a stranger. This may be the beginnings of the great experience of “Oneness” or “heaven” that we eventually find on the “Other Side.”
4. Express empathy. This is not just an inner feeling of compassion but an outer expression of your feelings. People who have returned to life from a near-death experience (NDE) often report that they experienced a deeper understanding of what it is like to “walk in another’s shoes” and feel empathy for another, and that this is one of the greatest spiritual experiences they ever had. Discover the meaning and gift that each emotion reveals along the grief journey as you consciously face your own and other’s deaths. Create sacred and safe spaces to share your feelings and vulnerability around being with death in your life. This is the path of the heart, one of the greatest spiritual challenges of a lifetime.
5. Make a “List of Great Things To Do Before I Die.” Spend time with loved ones, commune with nature, travel, volunteer for a great cause, discover your full purpose for living, help someone develop a better life, etc.
6. Make a “List of Regrets”. Then make a list of how to turn these into … opportunities.
7. Complete and distribute your Advance Green Directive. Find the form at: https://greenburialsanctuary.com/planning-your-green-burial/ An AGD form is not a legally-binding document but is very important in creating your deathcare wishes and plans with your family. Have a “round table” discussion with your family members, appoint a person who is willing to manage your requests, and don’t leave it to the time when your loved ones are in grief and stressed with uninformed decisions that could have been made in advance.
8. Write and sign your Advanced Directive. Write your Last Will, with the addendum of your AD and your AGD. Give copies to your trustee and to family members.
For a Rite of Passage for 18 year old adults and older that you know, support them in signing their AD, authorizing someone to make life/death decisions on their behalf in the event of a sudden or accidental death. Support them in caring for the earth with a plan for a green burial by creating an AGD.
See www.caringinfo.org. Check with mystatewill.com to see how much of your assets your state may be taken if you don’t write a will.
9. Write a Letter of Instructions with private information such as passwords, bank accounts, how to access them, etc. Copy this your Will, to confidential trustees, and trusted family members.
10. Write your obituary as you would like to be remembered. What thoughts, hopes or blessings, do you wish to leave behind with your burial or memorial?
If you choose to have a simple grave-side funeral, what would you want said? How would you wish your family to mourn or remember you, and move through their grief? What is your personal philosophy or spirituality about death? Have you considered that death may be a birth into a new life of some sort, complete with greater spiritual awareness? Do you believe that Love outlives death? Do you believe, or find hope in, death as a wondrous journey? What are the gifts in love and death for you to open? Consider what the late Dr Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) said, that your spirit and soul are eternal, and it is really the physical body that departs.
“If you come to visit my grave, my tomb will make you dance. Oh,brother! Don’t come without a tamborine, as the sad cannot join in God’s celebration.” -Rumi
