dont be afraid of death, be afraid of the unlived life.
Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.
But then, life is a constant withering of possibilities. Some are stolen with the lives of people you love. Others are let go, with regret and reluctance and deep, deep sorrow. But there is compensation for lives unlived in the intoxicating joy of knowing that the life you have - right here, right now - if the one you have chosen. There is power in that, and hope.
I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible; to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance, to live so that which came to me as seed goes to the next as blossom, and that which came to me as blossom, goes on as fruit.
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.