My mentor and very good friend, along with his children, bid farewell to their wife and mother this past Friday. While we are aware on the cognitive level that we begin our life cycle with death being the end result, it never makes it easy to say goodbye.

I watched my friend and his daughters stand stoically yet humbly as they participated in this Rite for Christian Burial for wife and mother. And being a part of this moment, I couldn’t help but think how wonderfully blessed they all were to receive the grace of acceptance. For death is so final.

There are many of us who live our lives each day with an external demeanour that exudes confidence, while we are silently crying on the inside with the thought of one day dying. There are some of us who perhaps push the thought from our minds as quickly as it approaches, for fear of it becoming a reality at that exact moment.

Someone commented on my age the other day and I retorted that no matter how old I got, he would always be 31 years older. He sighed deeply, and said I was not to remind him of that, for now that he has passed his promised three score and ten, he waits with abated breath for the inevitable.

But is that the way we ought to live our lives; waiting on death? While we cannot cheat death, as the poet suggests, should we live each day thinking about it, planning for it? But isn’t that what we do? Isn’t that how the insurance brokers suck us into the “what if” scheme?

Many of us have insurance simply to be prepared in case something catastrophic or perhaps not so severe, were to actually happen. The insurance companies rely on the fact that the majority of individuals do not have a bank account on reserve for emergencies.

When those extraordinary circumstances do occur these individuals would need to turn to someone for help. In walks the insurance company. The bottom line on the sales pitch is that “just in case something happens, God forbid, you will be covered.”

So we live each day preparing for an end, but my question has always been, “whose end?” If I am dead, what do I need a life insurance for? Does the monthly or annual premium assure me of life everlasting?

There are some people who are adamant about not having a life insurance for this very reason. Then there are those who purchase one because the insurance companies have convinced the lending institutions that they should not loan any money to individuals who do not have any insurance.

The banks are definitely in the ultimate win: win situation. Your life insurance policy insures life ever lasting for them, because even if you are dead, they are assured to get their money back.

Khalil Gibran writes that our children are not ours, for they come through us and are of us, but are still individuals created for their own purpose. Perhaps when that truly resonates with your spirit you would be better able to live your life for its purpose rather than being consumed with living for others or even with death and dying.

The finality of death on this plane of existence is a fact. Everything that lives will eventually die but we need to allow ourselves to live in the process. I have known some people who lived on this earth for decades being plagued with illness, yet they still lived each day attempting to fulfill their purpose.

There are some who are consummate planners and cannot survive a day that was not mapped out perfectly. Then there are those who wake up each day not knowing what will happen from one hour to the next. Whether you are at either end of the spectrum or in between somewhere, you must take each step each day with the end result being to walk towards fulfilling your life’s purpose.

About the author: Joye Ritchie-Greene is an Educational Consultant, Writer and Martial Arts Instructor. She is the owner/operator of The Bahamas Martial Arts Academy; president of Time-Out Productions; and is also a columnist for the Freeport News. She has a B.A. in English and an M.S. in Human Resources, resides in Freeport, Grand Bahama with her husband and enjoys playing tennis. Joye can be reached at joye_hel_ena@hotmail.com