Death is not a popular word and even a taboo. It is not an auspicious word anyway. Death means the end of life which is the most precious thing of a human being. You can achieve nothing if you have no life. But I find that if we can face death in a rational and intelligent way, we can know more about life itself.

First I want to share a funny story of mine with you. I don’t know whether you also had this kind of experience before. Back to the time when I was about 8 years old, the general social environment is not that various as it is today especially in the aspect of entertainment. I mean other extra ways people could enjoyed after their working days. Television is rare at that time so the knowledge we could learn from life is also quite limited. Therefore, you cannot blame the children at that time are not as clever as the children today. Then here comes my story. I was an ignorant little girl at the age of 8, being a primary school student in Grade One. One night after hearing a horrible story told by my elder sister, I had a terrible nightmare and woke up in the middle of the night, crying bitterly. My parents were surprised and asked me the reason why I was crying so sad. I gave them a very funny answer by saying that I was afraid that I would die one day and be buried under the ground. My parents just smiled and explained that every one would die one day and I was too young to worry about it. It is funny to recall my first horrible fear about death. As time went by, the fear about death lessened to a normal level. I know what death means and no more worry about it. And luckily, I grow into a girl who can always see the bottle half full. The silly fear of death didn’t leave me any shadow.

At the every young age, what I knew about death was just the hopeless fear and the end of life. While now, when I reconsider this issue, I have totally different recognition. As we all know, life is a one way journey. You got the one way ticket and got onto the train. Death is the final destination. No matter how long the journey takes you, you will arrive the place after all. There is no rush to get to the destination. What we have to do is just savor the journey wholeheartedly. Tough as it may be and sweet as well, just feel it and face it as seriously as you can. Live every minute to the fullest. Life is not all roses and most of the time is easy said than done. But that is what the life is and we can only live better and make our life meaningful with this kind of mindset. When you realize that death is inevitable and try to face it with a light heart you will definitely enjoy your life more. Here comes another story of mine before long. My pet dog was sick and hadn’t eaten any food for several days. It looked miserably weak and I was so worried about it that I even suffered from insomnia. It was not a strong dog any more. After all, it is almost 10 years old. I could not bear the sad and hopeless look in its eyes. There is no vet doctor in my hometown. I was lost of what to do. I prayed at night and tried to feed it with some medicine for I thought it might catch a cold. Because I saw it had a running nose and didn’t feel like eating anything. The fear of death haunted me again after so many years. I was afraid that it might leave me. The terrible imagery appeared in my mind all the time. I tried to persuade myself to accept the worst result if it really happened. Then quite by accident, I read a book called Pi Nang《皮囊》，（skin）in the book, something struck my heart. It says when we die, we leave our bodies and our souls are free. Our bodies are our skin. When we get out of our skin, we have nothing to worry about any more. Our bodies are just the skin that confines us. I associated it with the situation of my dog. What if the worst thing happened? How can I face it? My dog’s soul leaves its body and is free of pain. I must be happy for it. At least, I have had it for 10 long years and you know I might have lost it when it was just a puppy. But I have so many wonderful memories of it anyway. I must be grateful. And this new idea really worked. I felt less painful and was courageous enough to face the possible sad reality. Fortunately, several days later, it recovered. I saw it radiant face again. Again, I felt greatly appreciated to life and death. It is the fear of losing that makes me feel more about death and life. I cherish life even more.

Death is unavoidable. We can not change it therefore let’s face it bravely and try our best to make our limited life worth living. We are living in the count down process and our days are decreasing every day while our memories are increasing on the contrary. I always have the feeling of time crisis. I don’t think it is negative because it makes me cherish time and make my each day fulfilled. I try to get up early every day so that I can plan my day better. And it does help me and I get my day organized so well every single day and full of positive energy. Thank you for the death recognition I have got. Face death and cherish life!