#97: End-of-Life Planning (PART 1)

【Love Ain’t a Thing】
It’s the preparation for when we pass away. It’s the process of making decisions about our own final moments in life. It’s called End-of-Life Planning.
 
This may include important decisions about our own healthcare; or preference on funeral. This may mean getting our possessions in order; or creating a will to specify who receives our property after we pass away.
 
For most people, it’s about sorting out everything that we’ve accumulated over many decades--like taking an inventory of one’s whole life. To relieve our family of an administrative nightmare after we die, the more thoughtful/caring a person we are, we perhaps tend to spend more time/effort on this task.
 
Yet, at the same time, we can’t help but feel a little blue to be spending our precious remaining time on this rather mundane task.
 
Because it means, for the most part, sorting through our amassed belongings and piled-up paperwork. It almost feels as if we’re wasting our precious last moments in life, alone at our desk, going through boxes of stuff.
 
In all fairness, getting our possessions in order will surely be appreciated by our loved ones, for it means that burden won’t be dumped on them after we pass away. That alone should be a good enough reason to tackle this task, even as our own end-of-life approaches.
 
Nonetheless, it’s important that we do so without losing sight of the fact that our belongings/paperwork isn’t love. No, it ain’t love. Bluntly put, they’re merely things.
 
To be fair, we all admit there are things that are full of “Memories with our loved ones.” For example, that favorite outfit they often wore, or that handy tool they cherished for years. By all means, the photos taken together could very well embody the heartful memories.
 
Sure, they may be things alright, but they’re irreplaceable things.
 
Despite having said that, we also know that there’s no such thing, not even an irreplaceable thing, that’s more precious than the memories themselves.
 
And what’s more, wealth/money isn’t love, either. No, it ain’t love.
 
To be sure, passing wealth/money down the family line has been the mainstream practice beyond generations, across time, and throughout the world. Some people may say that, “Leaving the life savings to our own children is a virtuous act,” while others even go as far as to say that, “Inheritance is love.”
 
But truth be told, whether we’re left with inheritance or not, it really has nothing to do with love and happiness.
 
Simply put, it’s because love isn’t money.

Read Next: End-of-Life Planning (2)【Love Ain’t Money】

Complete Series: End-of-Life Planning (1)～(3)
[1]   [2]   [3]   

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