Preloading

What the Dying Can Teach Us About Living

CC | tv-14
Dr. B.J. Miller, a hospice and palliative care specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, works with terminally ill patients at the end of their lives. The experience has left him with an extraordinary sense of what it means to confront death and what really matters when we die. Among the important lessons he's learned are that "dying people are still living," that life is so valuable because it ends, and that our time on earth is brief.

"What you learn is that time is short," he says. "So, the decisions you make are of consequence. Delaying things that you love or want or seek, not calling Grandma, whatever it is—you have no promise of tomorrow. So, live your life today. I mean, that's probably the single best lesson about dying is to teach living."

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