My friend Hiroyuki Ito visited last week, a wonderful time. Among many great conversations, one thing he said has stuck with me. I'm not sure why. Maybe because he was relating it from personal experience, or because I haven't considered the scene from this angle so much.

He said that even until the very end of our lives, all of us creatures - people, cats, dogs, and all the rest -  have such a strong, pervasive appetite for life, until the moment of death. The very last inhalations are desires, for savoring the qualities of the air at that moment - the particular smell, taste, feel of it. Life is about living, and worth living until the very end. It is worth witnessing that living-ness through and through.  This appetite is precious, buoyant, our deepest cause for hope.

 Look here to see some of Hiroyuki's photography work.