The key to wise thought is to sense the energy state behind the thought.  If we pay attention, we will notice that certain thoughts are produced by fear and the small sense of self.  With them will be clinging, rigidity, unworthiness, defensiveness, aggression, or anxiety.  We can sense their effect on the heart and the body.  When we notice this suffering we can relax, breathe, loosen the identification.  With this awareness the mind will become more open and malleable,  with this pause we return to our true inner nature.  Now we can think, imagine, and plan, but from a state of ease and benevolence.  It's that simple. 
                                                                                                        ---Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart

Loss and Bereavement

Loss and bereavement can remind you sharply of what can happen when in life you do not show your love and appreciation, or ask for forgiveness, and so make you far more sensitive to your loved ones.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross said: ‘What I try to teach people is to live in such a way that you say those things while the other person can still hear it.” And Raymond Moody, after his life’s work in near-death research, wrote: “I have begun to realize how near to death we all are in our daily lives. More than ever now I am very careful to let each person I love know how I feel.”   -Rigpa