Metamorphosis

And until you have possessed
dying and rebirth,
you are but a sullen guest
on the gloomy earth.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Life is a process of metamorphosis, a series of deaths and transfigurations. This is where life's richness lies, and without change it is a slimy shuffle across the surface of this gloomy rock. We move in cycles of growth and decay--end and beginning are dreams.
We live fully day by day, we enjoy greatly and we suffer greatly, with others and alone. If we do not live, fully and intensely, during our mortality, then why should we expect to live after it?