Reading the comments on Gina Trapani's "My Life in Weeks" submission I was surprised by how many commenters found the shortness of life terrifying or horrifying.<p>I read of the Bhutanese practice of contemplating death several times a day years ago. I found it to be very liberating and continue to practice it in my own way. When I get stressed out I think about the fact that I'm going to die. Often this brings makes me laugh out loud or smile. Not that I want to die, but it reminds me that more often than not that thing I'm stressing about just isn't that important.<p>I watched my mother and my grandmothers take their last breaths. All of their deaths saddened me and I - a grown man of 50 - still get teary eyed when I see the 14 year old girl's headstone a few plots away from my mother's. Jeez, even now I'm misting up thinking about her.<p>But, while I feel grief and sadness, I don't cling to it. The dark days make the light days brighter. Death, something we can't escape - would I want to? - is part of the circle of life. Heck, it's the circle of the universe from what little I know of astrophysics and cosmology.<p>Maybe I'm a weirdo. I don't have much money. My little hatchback has 260,000 miles on it. I don't care. I feel free. I can sit and enjoy a sunset without the pull to be doing something else.<p>I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, but, for me, life is better and valued more when we recognize and accept the impermanence of it all. To each their own.<p>For an extreme example of being very comfortable with death, I encourage you to read up on the Tibetan sky burial. Warning: the description can be very graphic. If you find Trapani's post disturbing this may not be for you. Right now anyway.