There's nothing quite like a good, healthy evocation of your own mortality, to remind you that you're alive right now, and we, all of us, should be doing everything we can to stay alive. The more time we have on this planet, the more lives we touch.

I love Wakes to me is a time of celebrations and remembrance of life.

I know when I am not walking on this earth I want a celebration and no tears
Laughter and love...

But I have no intentions of checking out anytime soon

I embraces my mortality, in fact I am looking forward to the day that I no longer have to deal with the daily struggle that is life. I grow very tired of no matter where I go people getting upset with me because I refuse to be a scapegoat or lie down and let them walk all over me. You can go on and do everything you can to stay alive, but I for one can not wait until the day that God finally shows me mercy and allows my life to end.

Someone asked me once what I wanted done with my body after I die and to them my reply was "Cremate it and send it out with the trash, I will have no more use for it, and I don't want someone keeping it as a souvenir."

gosh, you are only 40.. so young to feel so blue and downhearted.
You need something/someone to put a smile on you face and a skip to your step!

I went to a funeral just the other day..
To lend my support to a friend..
What I found poignant..
Was towards the end of the service.
The family put up a slideshow of the deceases life... pictures of him as a Young Man, then pictures of himself and his new wife when they first married, then of course there's pictures of their children they had together ...pictures of Christmas and the holidays ,..time spent together as a family... the deceased was not a wealthy man, not a famous man, just a regular man...! I sat there looking at the pictures, thinking to myself ..what would my slideshow look like?

I think it would be awesome if that said "Going to awake today..."
and you were a guy in a coma whose monitors were online and your consciousness was a ghost that escaped to the internet to find emotional support from different social "networking" sites to resolve the issue that sent you into a coma.

And now you are going to awake with power over the internet.
So all tremble and beware! ...as you run amok traveling the globe to find the internet users who done you wrong and attack them with your smart phone minions. iPhones with little legs and teeth.

...I want to see that happen.

Yeah, I started looking for that when I was 18, you know the whole wife, kids, house and a decent job that pays the bills. Gave up on it about 6 years ago and now all I do is spend every waking moment trying to find some way of passing the time until, like I said, God has mercy on me and stops saving me from life ending events.

Sub titles.
For when the bleeper goes off.

Yeah, many ppl say that they don't want grief and tears, but laughter. I used to be one of them.
But now that my dad passed away end of March, and am still going through the motions, I know that may be a bit too much to ask for.
I know the intent, I always had the same feeling, but you should also allow for people to grieve, to miss you, and to simply mourn the loss of the beauty you were and what you brought to their lives.

When I saw my dad, I knew it was okay, the look on his face said it all. He was at peace. I felt a rest and acceptance come over me.
I've had the chance to say goodbye, I closed the coffin myself with my brother in law, put the screws in the cover too. And I'm glad I did all that.
I done my eulogy, my ode to my dad. It was light-hearted, yet deep. I'd managed to capture the very essence of who my dad was. I had ppl laugh and chuckle, and I had them deeply moved.
I think the best you can hope for, is for ppl to honour you the way you were. But tears, grief and feelings of loss are still part of that.
My dad's service was the most beautiful service I've ever seen. Ppl that didn't know him (their partners did) said "I didn't know him personally, but now I wished I had known him!"
Isn't that beautiful?! But you cannot force that to happen. It either does or it doesn't.

In spite of all that... I'm still having a bit of a hard time letting go. I know he's okay with it, I know it is okay. But ... I still lost my dad.
And yes there has been laughter to that day, and since, but having experienced such a loss now, I think it's selfish to say you want laughter and love only.
And I know it isn't meant that way. But you know, the bereaved still need their process. You can want for them to not grieve, because you love them and want them to be okay. But dealing with grief, sorrow, and loss is also part of life.

Going to wake today.......could it be to sleep in peace and never wake up or rise up from sleep and face the day? Is your existence be a call to life or death? Time and fate are our enemies, how long shall we live or when shall we die? Who knows if we are still going to wake up today or not.....but life is so precious to waste, everyday is full of promises, be grateful we are alive, let's rise up......do what we can do and live the life that we are meant to live......give meaning to life by touching more lives