Life Lessons: How Our Mortality Can Teach Us About Life and Living - Softcover

Kubler-Ross David Kessler, Elisabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743208110 ISBN 13: 9780743208116

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2001

Synopsis

If you only had a few days left, how would you live your life differently? Having now faced her own death the famous 'death and dying lady' takes on life and living, showing us how the lessons learned by many people - including herself - at the end, can teach us to improve and enjoy life at any time. Each one of us asks at some point, 'Is this really how I want to live my life?' This is a life-changing book, reminding us that the tragedy is not that life is short, but that we often see only in hindsight what really matters.

LIFE LESSONS faces life's challenges, devoting a chapter to fourteen crucial areas: identity, love and relationships, loss and fear, power, time, tolerance, patience, surrender, guilt, happiness, play, creativity. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler have been to the edge of life, hundreds of times, with those who have died and those who have survived. They invite us to explore these stories, showing us a better way to live and the way towards a deeper happiness. This very positive and hopeful book is a unique way to see each life as meaningful and profound, as an authentic experience that can fulfil its potential.

About this title

Review

After experiencing a paralysing stroke in 1995 and facing her own mortality, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (author of the renowned On Death and Dying) realised she had some unfinished business to take care of. "I wanted to write one more book, not on death and dying, but on life and living", she explains. So she joined forces with co-author David Kessler, a leader in the field of hospice care, and together they wrote about the lessons we can learn about living from those who are dying. As Kessler explains in his Introduction, "The dying have always been teachers of great lessons, for it's when we are pushed to the edge of life that we see most clearly".

In days gone by, the community would have gathering places where children and adults listened to elders tell their stories of life's challenges and the meaning they found in life. In lieu of that kind of extended community, the authors offer this book, filled with stories from the edge. Then, like fireside elders, they weave these personal stories into themes, such as living authentically, the importance of play, finding one's power, loving relationships and self-compassion. One cannot say enough about the lasting value of this beautifully written and carefully rendered book. This is your chance to see life from the 20-20 vision of hindsight. In the end what will we value most? Here are some hints: the days we surrendered and became calm, the times we healed that which was broken, and of course all the moments we opened ourselves to love. --Gail Hudson

Review

Patricia Devine

"The Irish Independent"

This is a thought-provoking book, one which in my opinion should be made compulsory. It is insightful, inspirational, intelligent, soothing, emotive, and informative about our seemingly arbitrary existence.

Patricia Devine"The Irish Independent"This is a thought-provoking book, one which in my opinion should be made compulsory. It is insightful, inspirational, intelligent, soothing, emotive, and informative about our seemingly arbitrary existence.

Patricia Devine "The Irish Independent" This is a thought-provoking book, one which in my opinion should be made compulsory. It is insightful, inspirational, intelligent, soothing, emotive, and informative about our seemingly arbitrary existence.

"This is a thought-provoking book, one which in my opinion should be made compulsory. It is insightful, inspirational, intelligent, soothing, emotive, and informative about our seemingly arbitrary existence."--Patricia Devine, The Irish Independent

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0743208110
• ISBN 13: 9780743208116
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224