THOUGHTS ABOUT THE END OF MY LIFE - With Rajiv Surendra

Comments · 1.3K

• EL

  @elizabethhan911 · 1 year ago

  This is one of the only channels where I love reading the comments because it actually feels like a caring and genuine community.

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• SU

  @susansommers3311 · 1 year ago

  Living with a cancer without a cure is a journey I never considered. Perhaps I hoped for the short-cut death; stroke, heart attack, accident. Boom! It’s over. However, this path has allowed me, even forced me, to plan, reflect, grieve, and release as needed. I stopped dying my hair and learned to enjoy the gray. I happily accept a wheelchair at the airport so I can continue to travel. I celebrate my marriage and that I had the opportunity to give life to three humans. I love the opportunity of connecting with people I would never have encountered were it not for this cancer. In the meantime, my life has slowed way down. What a gift.

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• LU

  @lunaeaweatherstone7906 · 1 year ago

  I'm so glad you didn't get the role in Life of Pi, Rajiv. Yes, you would have been perfect, but it would have sent your life in a different direction and deprived the world of the beauty you are giving it now. 🙏

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• AN

  @AngBQueenAdwoasCloset · 1 year ago

  Can I say? I really LOVE your content. In a world of flashy and clickbait. You're here in an old-school way. Just you .. Talking directly to the camera with meaningful reflections about real life topics

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• CR

  @CrossCultural-c7f · 1 year ago

  I had a sterling silver set &nbsp;of flatware from my mother in law and would only use it for “special occasions”. <br>Before those “special occasions”, I had to clean the tarnish off the sterling.<br>After 9-11 happened, I realized that I could die at any minute. I came to the conclusion that *every day is special*.<br>Every day is a gift. That was when I decided that I would use the sterling silver flatware every day. <br>The funny thing I discovered was that because I used the sterling every day, the sterling didn’t tarnish. <br>That observation still amazes me.

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• VR

  @VRodz-11 · 1 year ago

  As a person who has worked in hospice for over 15 years, I&apos;m so grateful that you had the courage to post a video that may not necessarily be understood by everyone. ❤<br>My favorite quote is by Atul Gawande, &quot;Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death. But a good life until the very end&quot;. Live your life as well as you can, &nbsp;until the very end

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• NE

  @Nemie125 · 1 year ago

  I&apos;m British but when I was five, I found myself living in Texas, close to the border of New Mexico. &nbsp;There was a beautiful old house in my street which, back in the 70s, was known as an &quot;old folks home&quot;. &nbsp;There were always very elderly ladies sitting out on the huge porch, sitting silently and staring blankly into the distance. &nbsp;One day, I was out picking flowers for my pregnant mother who felt unwell, but I ended up walking up to the porch of that house and instead handed the flowers to a very friendly and jolly nurse, who gladly took them from me. &nbsp;My small presence and innocent gesture prompted them all to smile and laugh...&quot;Would you look at this child!&quot;..and the nurse instructed me to sit down next to Miss Violet while she went to fetch me a glass of cold lemonade. &nbsp; I&apos;d never seen anyone so old at that point in my life. &nbsp;Her thin face was heavily weathered and wrinkled and she barely had any hair left on her head. &nbsp;I was a little afraid. &nbsp;But then I noticed she had beautiful blue eyes and in that moment, I saw who she really was; &nbsp;just a person, like me, but in a worn out body that was nearing it&apos;s end, and I wondered what kind of adventures she&apos;d had. &nbsp;I looked at her veined, aged hands next to my brand new ones and I knew that perhaps one day, my hands might look like that too, and I wondered what kind of adventures I would have (and I ended up having quite a few thus far). &nbsp;It was an early life lesson for me, and one I&apos;ve never forgotten.

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• MA

  @MaxineShaw_84 · 1 year ago

  All the &quot;please stick around&quot; comments really missed what he&apos;s actually talking about here. Try listening again to understand because he started asking himself the important questions very early in life.

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• EL

  @Ellary_Rosewood · 1 year ago

  As someone who thinks about death daily, I think it&apos;s an important thing for people to think about. &nbsp;I don&apos;t fear my own death. &nbsp;It only makes me want to slow down and appreciate the beauty that&apos;s all around us. &nbsp;Taking it all in, enjoying all the pleasures that life gives us , and simply marveling at just how wondrous and magical it is to be alive! &nbsp;Every day I wake up and am so thankful to get to be here for another day. &nbsp;When you begin to view life and existence in that way, life really does feel magical. &nbsp;❤

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• MA

  @marthaevans8270 · 1 year ago (edited)

  I agree. I am 83. I have been building a personal library, thinking that I would &nbsp;give those books to someone. My children and grandchildren do not want them. So I decided to donate them to a new bookstore in the town where I was born. The founders have a vision that appeals to me. I have so many it may be necessary to make a will eventually.<br>I have donated books all along but my sense of continuity, the tangible presence of those that going on giving me fascination, still gives me joy. Thank you for talking about this today. You are cherished.

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• LE

  @LeanMeanAsianCuisine · 1 year ago

  Hi Rajiv, I work as a caregiver for people who are approaching the end of their life. I&apos;m 19 years old and all of the older people that I am around tell me &quot;how much time I have&quot; and that I am &quot;too young to worry&quot; about various things, but I look down at my hands and can&apos;t stop the thought that one day I will be old and certainly I reach the end of my life (even if I don&apos;t get to grow old). When I talk to the residents in my facility I can see how they lived in the past by how they are right now. I often think about how I could have dementia and not know what is going on when I die. I want to be able to be me when I die. I get this fear that one day I will wake up old and look back at my life to find that I didn&apos;t have enough time to make anything of myself. &nbsp;We think we have so much time when we are young but the years will come faster and faster. Even so living so long isn&apos;t a happy existence for many of the people I have worked with. Some of them are so ready to die that they talk about dying as saving them from their current state. I have also met people that are terrified to die and they die afraid. I don&apos;t want to be so miserable when I die that I am reaching to it to save me and I don&apos;t want to be afraid, but I have come to realize that the uncertainty of life is so unpredictable that I can&apos;t allow myself to think that far ahead because you have no idea how you will reach that point. Everyday is an opportunity that compounds up to the end and if you make use of your time and appreciate living while you can then you have done all you could. I have focused on the idea that I will die since I was pretty young as well but it got to be very stressful after becoming a caregiver, so focusing on enjoying and EXPERIENCING my time has put me in a better mindset. Being grateful for all the things I am able to do right now.

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• JA

  @jainthorne4136 · 1 year ago

  I&apos;ve been a gardener for almost 60 years. I don&apos;t fear death as I know it&apos;s part of life. I think you expressed your thoughts &nbsp;beautifully.

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