Thank you PAIN Thank you PLEASURE Thank you LIFE

Thank you Justine & Michael

What if you only had a year to live? Take a moment and seriously consider your answer to this question. What would you do? Maybe you’d spend your time close to home, appreciating time with loved ones. Or, maybe you’d pack your bags and travel the world. Maybe you’re interested in philanthropy and would dedicate that year to community service. Or maybe you’d spend most of your time alone, quietly reflecting on your life.

But the truth is, you can’t cram a lifetimes worth of experiences, achievements, challenges and friendships into one year. Life doesn’t work that way. But what you can do is make sure that you don’t take your time for granted, and that you consciously choose to pay attention to the things that are most important to you.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. When you open your eyes to the beauty that surrounds you, you not only learn how to live but find what to live for.

Filmed in Swellendam, South Africa.
Featuring Jeremy Puren.

All of our films are made possible through the generous support of our patrons.

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Who is Reflections of Life? We are Justine and Michael (previously known as Green Renaissance). We use our passion for filmmaking and our love of storytelling, to remind our audience of one simple truth – that we are all human. The more that we understand and believe in this interconnectedness, the more we will treat ourselves, one another, and planet earth with a greater sense of compassion.

Filming - by Michael Raimondo
Editing - by Jackie Viviers and Justine du Toit

Spectral Type O - by Yotam Agam
Shiver - by Borrtex
Soft Touch - by W A T E R F V L L S
Picturesque - by Conor McKeever
Oval Window - by Yehezkel Raz

A huge thank you to these guys, who gave so generously of their to time to help with translations, enabling us to provide subtitles in the following languages:
Arabic - by Mohammad Alkhudhair
Assamese - by Partha Protim Borah
Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) - by Shun-Ying Lu
Croatian - by Davor Bobanac
Dutch - by Karla Greven
English - by Justine du Toit
French - by Amélie Macoin
Georgian - by Qeti Giorgadze
German - by Tanja Pütz
Greek - by Vicky Polychroni
Hindi - by Parul Sharma
Hungarian - by Zorka Evetovics
Indonesian - by Ary Nuansa
Italian - by Grazia Gironella
Japanese - by Kaoru Hasegawa
Korean - by Chloe Park
Macedonian - by Lidija Pusevska Markovska
Persian - by Mona Zadsham
Portuguese - by Sibylle Steinpass and Lucivani Valvassori
Slovenian - by Jasmina Kovačič
Spanish - by Emanuel Mori
Vietnamese - by Thi Le

[Alifeofglory]

This may be my last year. I survived cancer one year ago, but my test last month came back abnormal, and I didn't get the message on time. Monday I go back to Onochology. I always feel satisfied and happy each day with my life though. ❤️ I think no matter what I spend time doing, it's worthy of my last day, or my last year. Taking a nap, sitting in the sun, chatting with my kids, traveling to Mexico... it's all good. 🙂

[peaceloveandunderstanding]

This is one of the most outstanding channels on social media. My humanity grows with each and every presentation. What a gift. Thank you.

[akiafra]

Surprisingly, I had exactly the same idea a month ago. I wanted to do what I would do if I had a year to live. The first thing I did, was to come home to spend some time with my family, especially with my grandmother who has been isolated mostly for the past three years. I go and spend two hours a day with her, chatting and having a nice cake, and that was almost all I needed. I don't know how my journey will turn out but I just want to let things be for a while. A journey to find myself again.

[LindaCasey]

Oh how I reminisced my youth in this video. I was told at 25 by a 'psychic' that I would die at 74. I was always conscious of this, so filled each day henceforth to the brim with as much 'living of life to the full' as I could as if it were a race for time. I am now 74 (and a HALF) years old, retired and reclusive, but still enjoying each moment of quietude with my pups as if it WERE my last year on earth. Yes, spend time in nature whenever you feel overwhelmed and love everything about your unique self without shame or apology. Life's grand in all it's speckled glory. Enjoy it to the last drop.💕

[bridgetedwardslivelifefully]

"Thank you pain. Thank you pleasure. Thank you life. Thank you death." The circle of life. Wise young man! I pray he finds someone who truly appreciates his depth and wisdom. 💜

[jimwalker]

Wow, just Wow, " if I die now, I will have had a good year" that absolutely blew me away. " Im 75yoa all my life I've been waiting for something, searching, searching, endlessly searching, I think I've just found it, guess what I intend to do from right this very minute, to all involved thank you for this brilliant video.

[ManuelaChristina]

I have this same experience after my coma. I was hit by a car on street and was in coma and have braindamage and more damage in my body. I could now not walk without a strowler. I cant work anymore and was very sad. But after this i live now my life slowly. I have time to do nice things with my children and family and talk and rest. I am now 51 years old and with retirement after this. I live fully my life and be thankful for it. I came back from almost dead and do appreciate my life more and my time with my loved ones. And bee happy with less. The only thing in life what counts is love. Thanks Jeremy for sharing your experience and Justine and Michael for sharing this with us 🤗

[annettecinquemanifalbo]

Your films bring me so much peace, it's hard to put into words how I feel when I watch them. It seems that I always know before I click the play button I better sit down and get ready for something that's going to resonate with me and will be deeply profound. Your films not only make me think deeply but they invoke feelings deep within in me. This man has much wisdom at the age of 38. I just celebrated 65 years on this earthly plane and I'm so grateful that I live out in the country. It's not as peaceful as it once was because more and more city folks are seeking the country life, but they bring their noisy selves with them and don't fully understand the country way of life. I'm sad about losing my peaceful country life now, and sometimes I feel the need to move further out into the country today. But then I think... I'd have to give all this up, everything I worked and dreamed of my whole life up until now. So I sit and ponder... The word acceptance comes to the forefront of my mind. I still have my little safe space on my place where I can also retreat and retire to.
This was a another masterpiece, thank you.

[valdkynd]

Life is so precious, so short, so unpredictable...funnily I thought a lot like the man in the video. Living every day like it is one in your very last year seemed wise, but I noticed now that I am living with and caring for my ill husband who literally knows that his days are numbered, that on a certain level you also need to live like you would live forever. Otherwise you don't get on with projects anymore, that are dear to your heart, which may rather need half a year than just 2 weeks to be finished. We also need to trust that there is enough time for us to create, to risk the unfinished, to allow days on which everything just feels too heavy to enjoy life and to do anything at all. Such a complex balance being alive and honouring our essence with all its talents and shortcomings. Thank you for this video and the many others!

[paulajnt]

He got me crying on the first minute. This is the time, in my own life, where I am in Brazil and in pain (recovering from a surgery), while also being apart from my husband who is Ukrainian and can't leave his country to come be with me. So the question of "what would I do if this would be my last year?" leaves me in a loop having to choose between staying with my mom and waiting for war to be over, or actually returning to Ukraine to be with my husband. Well, I will try to do both things in the same 'year': when I get better, I will be with my husband, but for now, I heal and enjoy the moments I get to spend with my mom.

[galepatrick]

Your little dog loves you so much - and you him/her - this alone and being in nature - so glad for your thought process-

[onlypearls]

Every day that I wake from sleeping I am grateful. I live each day as if it were the only day I will have. Not that it's "not yesterday" or "better than any other day" but, that it's the only day, and I ask myself... "How would I live if I had only one day?"... and I live that way, on that one day. Today is a gift!

[nataliameleshina]

Indeed, pain is an excellent teacher. I lost my husband Claudio 14 months ago (he was only 55), and the last year was so intense and so eye-opening… Lord, I wish pleasure when we still were together had taught the same… anyway, thank you for this very touching and gentle film

[ngocinhnguyen]

We all have the same feelings: pain, uncertainty, confusion, and sometimes happiness, but most of the time is a struggle with what's going on inside. It's just that it happens to each person in a different way and each person chooses a different way to face it. So just see it, feel it and let it be, let it go. Thanks for a beautiful video!

[qzgiuhx]

The paradise we create is always flawed. Being alone is better than being with a person who resents you, often because of their own flawed selves. Live every day as though it will be your last. Solitude, nature and animals are life's greatest pleasures. Wonderful insight. You have done well for yourself in dealing with your vulnerability. Beautiful camera work and editing! 💛💫

[janinebaker]

I have witnessed many a human who woke up one morning never to see the end of the day. It gives you a new sense of perspective on life and how precious the time we have truly is. I completely agree with every word Jeremy said. We get so caught up in life and the mundane stuff that does not truly matter we forget to live sometimes.

[gsand]

He reminds me of one of my sons. As a mom, it made me a bit nervous watching him climb slippery boulders while wearing what looks like slippery shoes! I hope he puts some tight, gripping sneakers on those feet! Thank you for sharing his very wise thoughts with us and I pray his life journey continues to enlighten and lift him up up up! ❤

[monicamiriamtassitano]

I love his message! Pain, pleasure, life, death... So inspiring! It makes me feel so calm...
Thanks a lot!

[tomasr]

The timing is amazing here. Because I live alone, I have to be proactive with my death process, have been for years. Last night I decided to video my own eulogy perhaps today and post it for a later date? I will tell my life story in a 15 minute or so video to help me with my process. No one will do it so I will do it myself. Just like everything... Despite all I have done and created, no one has shown up to share my energy, time and nature after five years here in the forest living a good life. Looking back all the way to my childhood I see that I have led a solo, isolated life, not really wanting that but its happened, I wonder why?. Yet there was 30 years of partnership and that was my happy time. But now I have been living alone for 6 years plus. Soon off goes the computer, and the communications, now out in the forest without human voices, leave you all behind. I'm tired of it all ready to take a nap. Oh well, not my problem anymore, humans are shyte I will tell the saints. Leave them to their misery. My camp will disappear which is sad because all the hard work will be wasted except for the joy I have had making it happen. I've really sat with my isolation for years now, in and out of difficult times, friends falling away. Another sad part is that people have been the clueless ones to want a simple life, living in the woods but they are stuck in their minds, very few people help each other and listen and just be. Most are takers, lost in the consumption values only out for their own interests. No big deal in the big picture, for I have sat with my grief and its liberating that things will change in the final days I will be kind with myself. Meditation, sitting, singing and moving on. thanks for the video.

[catedennis]

Wonderful again and Jeremy was amazing. I love this line you listed earlier - Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. It reminds me of the best saying I ever heard years ago - When you go to write the story of your life, don't let someone else hold the pen. I so look forward to these videos. They seem to hit me most when I need them. Thank you!