smacked upside the head

My friend says there is nothing like having had a brush with the "big C" to re-shape your priorities and put things in perspective. Many people who have survived life threatening illnesses, car accidents, plane crashes, feel newly awake to life. Untimely deaths (but when are they ever timely?) can do this for us. Give us a smack upside the head - jolt us into the reality that this life is sacred, precious, fragile, fleeting, and on its way to ending -- for EVERY ONE OF US. Check out the frank, inspiring, poignant collection of poetry, prose and essays by a woman living with cancer, aptly called Slapped Awake. And just WAKE UP!

And from Rumi:

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.