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People have been exiting the Earth in record numbers, lately. If there\u2019s a welcome home party in the afterlife, there\u2019s surely going to be some great music and conversation. Naturally,\u00a0the question of the hour is, why is everyone dying?\u00a0<\/em>This isn’t a new phenomenon. <\/span>The past six or so years have been demanding. Uranus and Pluto, still in their wide square, continues to pressure us to \u201cevolve or die\u201d, to face our shadows, heal our wounds, and live more authentically and true to our self. Energetically, this\u00a0hasn\u2019t been an easy ride for anyone, and with\u00a0the relentless burden and strain\u00a0to evolve,\u00a0the human vessel\u00a0gets tired,\u00a0worn out. Maybe that’s why some\u00a0have been called to finish their healing on the other side. For those remaining,\u00a0life goes on, though it’s\u00a0different.\u00a0Like a\u00a0ravenous appetite\u00a0after the fever of a long illness has burned off, we\u00a0re-enter life changed, hungry to really live.\u00a0When I visited Paris after the bombings last year, it was still Paris, city of light, but moreso. People were going out, dining and drinking champagne at midnight, celebrating life. To my mind, the dying want those left behind to be more Parisian: To more fully live. Fulfill our self. Celebrate life.<\/strong><\/p>\n My husband John and I have a tradition of checking in with one another about how on track we are in leading the lives we want to lead. This can happen at any time but spontaneously occurs around the death of a notable. We compare notes around the old \u201cIf I knew I was going to die in a year would I do anything differently?\u201d question, striving\u00a0to answer it truthfully while holding each other accountable when one of us starts to compare our thimble- sized accomplishments to say, David Bowie\u2019s (\u201cIs that your ego talking?\u201d usually clears that one\u00a0up). Last year, John decided that from now on that he would only wear red socks because he liked the statement it made (\u201cnow here\u2019s a man who\u2019s serious about style\u201d). He holds a 1950\u2019s style cocktail hour every evening, and although I rarely partake, it\u2019s a joy to behold his mixology joy (did you know there\u2019s a slew of Bowie cocktails? \u201cThe Ziggy Stardust\u201d, \u201cThe Black Star\u201d, and the straightforward \u201cDavid Bowie\u201d?) Like a check and balance system, Death\u2019s gift is the reminder to play,\u00a0live, enjoy… and if you don\u2019t, you\u2019re not taking Death seriously.<\/strong><\/p>\n We tend to live as if\u00a0we have lots of time. “If you knew you had only a year to live would you do anything differently?\u201d<\/strong> Would you finally: leave that relationship, start the blog, visit Machu Picchu, re-connect with a precious friend? Are\u00a0you waiting for a divine power to give you permission to live? In the wake of his passing, I read a Stephen Levine interview <\/a>circulating. Stephen was the author of among others, Who Dies?,<\/em> a book about dying I read while volunteering at an AIDS hospice a lifetime ago. Stephen devoted his life to helping people become more conscious about their death. In the article he spoke about not waiting to live, but living this year as if this is your last, which he did as a formal spiritual practice (he was Buddhist). One thing he noticed while doing the practice is how vain we are. \u201cWe are so attached to how we appear in the world, in relationships,\u201d he said, \u201cSimple embarrassment so often guides the way we interact with others\u2026 I think we are embarrassed by how much pain we have been in throughout our entire lives. Because we are embarrassed, we don\u2019t share this truth with one another\u2026 We need to have mercy on ourselves. We all feel embarrassed. Actually, when we do speak about these things, when we do share our embarrassment, we experience relief.\u201d<\/p>\n