Death...it comes for us all.

I was just reading and commenting on an article about the death of Oprah's dog. Yes, her dog was in the news because it died. The only person who I knew personally who died and it was on more than just the local news or in the local news paper was my ex-wife. She was killed by a lioness in Tallassee, Alabama. in October of 1978. Most now would probably not remember that happening. She was not some famous person; her fame was being killed in her own backyard by a lion.

It doesn't matter who we are rich, poor, genius, idiot death has no care who we are. We leave with the same things we came into this life with, NOTHING! We are born with nothing other than the breath it takes to continue from moment to moment.

I started the above back July 19, 2007 and never finished it. Recently I lost a dear friend who was only four years older than myself and a very close friend of mine lost her father. As the title states death comes for us all, no way we can avoid it for most of us in rough fully sixty five to seventy five years of age after we are born. There are those who either die young from disease or from an accident or if a war is going on in the war.

Myself, well, over the years I have faced death so many times now it holds no fear for me. I can say once I was dead or to me I was dead. When as a nineteen year old on my way to work a truck pulled across the road in front of me and I had neither time to react nor any place to go to avoid the accident. The hood of my car came through the windshield and hit me in the top of my head after I chewed on the steering wheel of the car. I remember seeing the truck in the roadway ahead of me and the next thing I remember was seeing the wreck from tree top level. I was looking down on the accident above the trees and not feeling anything physically but I did feel a presence that is the best I can describe it. I felt more than heard a voice say it isn't your time and the next thing I remember is the rain in my face and pain every where, my face, my head, my hands, my legs.

Since that time I have had my head split open trying to arrest a criminal, run over by a car while helping a fellow officer to make an arrest. talked a man out of a shotgun which was pointed at my nose, dodged bullets and a few other lethal weapons of one kind or another while being a cop. I should have been dead many times in my life. But here I am still kicking. Not quite so high as I once could but still kicking. A year and a half back I was taken to the hospital by friends where I found out I was diabetic. My blood sugar was 1047 and I was still conscious or at least semi-conscious and talking nor always coherently but talking. Some say I should have died that day or sooner.

Makes me wonder why I'm still here when I have seen so many of my friends die over the years, so many of my family die way before me. I'm hanging on despite being unable to work or do most of the things I once could do. My drawing ability has been hit and miss since my hands shake too much to draw like I once could. I do still have the ability to take rather nice photos of flowers. They can't run away from me like the animals can.

I know one day I too will cease to exist. You know stop breathing and such, and then begin to stink up the place worst than I do now. That is unless someone finds me before I do start to stink the place up which these days is not a given. Maybe I should teach NoNo to dial 911. Nope, she is just a cat not a dog. But I do worry about her if something did happen to me. She came back here to fuss at me earlier; I had forgotten to feed her on time and me as well.

Some times I would welcome not feeling the pain I feel every day and night. It is worse at night which is why you see me posting most of my stuff late at night on here. I can't sleep so I work on photos or write and then subject you all to my ramblings. My back is a barometer which tells me when there is a high or low coming through the area. What may seem funny is that my back hurts worse during the highs not the lows. So I welcome the rain most of the time, besides loving to hear it rain or watch the rain drops fall.

So we can't out live death. One day it will come for us all. From the time we are first born the only out come of that day is death. Are we living a death sentence from out first breath? I guess we could look at it that way but what a waste of time that would be. I look around me and see the beauty of this world. I see the hope in children's eyes, their joy at the simplest things. I try to see the world as a child would the wonder of it all, the freshness to them of it all. We as we grow older loose that sense of wonder that sense of freshness of joy at the simple pleasures. We grow callus to the feelings of others to their pains. Is it because we are in so much pain our selves?

I for one will try to remember the simple pleasures and the joys of life that bring smiles to children's faces. For the remaining time I have left here I will keep a sign over my computer monitor saying remember to smile once a day whether you feel like it or not. Beside it a photo of my sweet granddaughter as she laughs while splashing into the pool and showering her mom with water and her love...we each have only so many years here some only a short stay for others a longer stay but we all will leave by the same door minus the clothes, jewelry, and money we built up in this life for all we can take with us is the good or bad we did to our fellow man.