Dying Beautifully

“Some people die well. But most of us don’t know how. And we need to learn. Perhaps the best way is to begin a conversation before the grim reaper is still a comfortable distance away. Kit Kittle has photographed and assembled a collection of flowers to show that life is a cycle and death is a part of that. Everything is transient, living things fade and death comes. As he does, he shows us there is a certain natural beauty in death, no matter how tragic, that can help us and the people we love on their journey to where ever they believe they are going, even if it’s nowhere. Facing death will only affirm that it is inevitable…but also help remind us, that life itself, is to be cherished.”

- Katie Couric

And they die, An equal death, the idler and the man, Of mighty deeds. Homer

And they die, An equal death, the idler and the man, Of mighty deeds.
Homer

Between our birth and death we may touch understanding, as a moth brushes a window with his wing. Christopher Fry

Between our birth and death we may touch understanding, as a moth brushes a window with his wing.
Christopher Fry

Everything ends with flowers. Helene Cixous

Everything ends with flowers.
Helene Cixous

Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk. George MacDonald

Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.
George MacDonald

Come all you who chances by, as you now are so once was I, as I now am soon you will be, prepare yourself to follow me. Headstone in the Southwest Mountains of Virginia, death 1804,

Come all you who chances by, as you now are so once was I, as I now am soon you will be, prepare yourself to follow me.
Headstone in the Southwest Mountains of Virginia, death 1804,

Decline is also a form of voluptuousness, just like growth. Autumn is just as sensual as springtime. There is as much greatness in dying as in procreation. Yvan Goll

Decline is also a form of voluptuousness, just like growth. Autumn is just as sensual as springtime. There is as much greatness in dying as in procreation.
Yvan Goll

Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod. Aristophanes

Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod.
Aristophanes

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colors of life in all their purity. George Santayana

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colors of life in all their purity.
George Santayana

Death is a sniper. It strikes people you love, people you like, people you know - it’s everywhere. You could be next. But then you turn out not to be. But then again, you could be. Nora Ephron

Death is a sniper. It strikes people you love, people you like, people you know - it’s everywhere. You could be next. But then you turn out not to be. But then again, you could be.
Nora Ephron

I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty. How free it is, you have no idea how free – The peacefulness is so big it dazes you, and it asks nothing... Sylvia Plath

I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty. How free it is, you have no idea how free
– The peacefulness is so big it dazes you, and it asks nothing...
Sylvia Plath

We, as extremely complex creatures, desperately need to know this story of how the universe creates complexity and why complexity means vulnerability and fragility. David Christian

We, as extremely complex creatures, desperately need to know this story of how the universe creates complexity and why complexity means vulnerability and fragility.
David Christian

The meaning of life is that it stops. Franz Kafka

The meaning of life is that it stops.
Franz Kafka

Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. Job 14, The Old Testament

Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Job 14, The Old Testament

It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death. Thomas Mann

It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.
Thomas Mann

We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love. Madame de Stael

We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love.
Madame de Stael

Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides. Carl Sagan

Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
Carl Sagan

Death ends a life, not a relationship. Mitch Allbom

Death ends a life, not a relationship.
Mitch Allbom

Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door. Emily Dickinson

Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.
Emily Dickinson

It is some relief to weep; grief is satisfied and carried off by tears. Ovid

It is some relief to weep; grief is satisfied and carried off by tears.
Ovid

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. Thomas Campbell

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.
Thomas Campbell

Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one. Martin Heidegger

Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.
Martin Heidegger