“It is very important that you only do what you love to do. you may be poor, you may go hungry, you may lose your car, you may have to move into a shabby place to live, but you will totally live. And at the end of your days you will bless your life because you have done what you came here to do. Otherwise, you will live your life as a prostitute, you will do things only for a reason, to please other people, and you will never have lived. and you will not have a pleasant death.” ― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

You know that feeling when you meet or encounter a person who commands reverence and yet is so humble and earnest. Hopefully, during our lives, we have met one or two of those individuals. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was one of those for me. And while I only saw her speak in Pasadena, California sometime around 1977-78.

In America, in our culture, death and dying are still unmentionable for many people, still considered unlucky. As if talking about death would somehow hasten yours or mine, and yet.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross influenced a cultural shift which continues to this day. She talked about and to the dying, giving them a voice and an ear. She started a trend toward reintegrating death into our lives instead of hiding it in a sanitized room away from family. We have much to thank her for. You can learn more about her life, books and work at http://www.ekrfoundation.org/.

Hearing her speak, and talk about death and dying and the importance of recognizing it as a natural part of life, a healthy part of life was inspirational. And even though I was just about twenty-one at the time her words and presence had a profound effect on my own relationship with my own mortality. We just started dating my mortality and me. No reason to rush into anything.