\n<\/p>\n
What struck me most about this article (What end-of-life experts know about living well: love your wrinkles, celebrate birthdays and don\u2019t obsess over work, 13 August) is the idea that preparing for the end of life can actually help us live more fully now.<\/p>\n
As an end-of-life doula, I have seen how a terminal diagnosis can suddenly bring clarity. The things that once felt urgent often fall away, while relationships, memories, unfinished conversations and the question of what we leave behind become profoundly important. But\u00a0I don\u2019t believe that we should have to wait for a diagnosis to begin\u00a0that work.<\/p>\n
We often think of \u201cgetting our affairs in order\u201d as something practical: writing a will, sorting passwords or deciding what happens to our possessions. Yet there is something much more human underneath all of this. It is about asking: what matters to me? What do I want my family to know? What stories, photographs, objects or values do I want to pass on? And, perhaps most importantly, what can I let go of so that the people I love are not left carrying unnecessary burdens?<\/p>\n
I have come to see this as creating a joyful legacy. Decluttering, when approached this way, isn\u2019t simply about having a tidier home. It can be a way of making space for the life we are actually living \u2013 while making things a little easier for those who may one day have to sort through what we leave behind.<\/p>\n
The article rightly reminds us that none of us knows how much time we have. Perhaps the most loving response to that uncertainty is not to fear death, but to use its inevitability as an invitation: say the thing, mend the relationship, celebrate the birthday, sort the photographs, share the story \u2013 and then get on with living. I recently recovered from major cancer surgery, and Sarah Phillips\u2019 article rang very true. Being forced to embrace my own mortality has helped me find what truly shines in ordinary life. EM Forster put it so well: \u201cDeath destroys a man: the\u00a0idea of Death saves him\u201d. Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong>email<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong>letters<\/em><\/strong> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What struck me most about this article (What end-of-life experts know about living well: love your wrinkles, celebrate birthdays and don\u2019t obsess over work, 13 August) is the idea that preparing for the end of life can actually help us live more fully now. As an end-of-life doula, I have seen how a terminal diagnosis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[25196,376,141,7643,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-51835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-contemplating","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-dying","11":"tag-helps","12":"tag-life"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Rebecca Jo-Rushdy<\/strong>
Edinburgh<\/em><\/p>\n
Jane Andrew<\/strong>
Perth <\/em><\/p>\n