Dying or being alive

Last month was one filled with death, a close friend lost her baby a week before it should have been born, 3 close friends lost their dads and our community lost its mayor. The first was by far the hardest to deal with, a little girl who never really got the chance to be alive. Each time I heard of a death I thought 'I don't want to die, thank goodness I'm still alive'. I started to think about what being alive means.
Do we spend most of our lifes dying or are we being alive. I think that as kids we are alive. Look at the joy you see in kids faces and they are truly living. Sometime we start to die, unfortuanatly some sooner than others. The way people treat us adds to this process, so does the stuff we ingest into our bodies. We are taught to think that dying all your life is normal, we have to do as we are told, follow doctors and parents who don't know any better, we are taught that it is better to look after other people than ourselves, putting ourselves first is seen as selfish. I've realised that this is a load of old rot, we need to put ourselves first, learn to love ourselves and get on with living our lives. If we really do what is best for us, for our minds, bodies and spirits then we will feel great and be more there for life. We can take responsability for ourselves, others won't have to give up their lives to look after us. Looking after ourselves doesn't mean ignoring everyone else or not being kind, I just believe that if we really all took care of ourselves we would have more time for others, for having fun with them, not nursing them or listening to their health wows. Changing the way we think isn't always easy, we don't want to give up the way we think, what we eat and drink. I find myself eating or drinking things I don't want to because I don't want to upset others around me, this is just ludicrous. Why should I fill my body with crap just to make someone else happy, why do I feed my own children crap food, just to make them happy? Its daft because feeding them good live food will make them so much happier in the long run as they will feel better and learn that feeling good about being alive is the way to be.
I've been struggling with my raw diet but now realise that the choice is really mine, do I want to be dying or living?