What a wonderful topic, and a wonderful post from the topic starter!

Without death, life would be meaningless (one of my many problems with the idea of an eternal heaven, but that's another story entirely). Death is as necessary, beautiful and natural and any other part of life. I think that death is merely a new beginning, in another life, another form, another journey.

As a nursing assistant, I've been with countless people during their final moments, and sharing such a sacred time with a person is amazing beyond words. When we die, all it means is that we've learned what we've needed to learn in this life, we've done what we came to do, and we're ready to move on to something else - hopefully something bigger and better.

I think the problem most people see with death is it's this ultimate finality, and people are understandably uncomfortable with that. But if we learn to look at death as just another step, or as part of a cycle, I think we can learn to be at peace with it, and even see the beauty in it.