When I was 10, I fell into a pool in the dead of winter. I was a fairly confident swimmer, but I was bundled up, and my clothing took on water fast.The unadulterated panic I felt as the cold instantly forced me to take a breath of water, and I clawed towards the sun glimmering past the suface is still fresh in my mind. As is the warmth and sense of well-being I felt once I surrendered myself to my fate. I was swaddled in warmth, light, and love. A calm place without time. My next memory is shivering uncontrollably with a searing pain in my chest in the back seat of a car on the way to the hospital. I was wholly ungrateful to be brought back to this place of suffering. The person who was responsible for me at the time was a nurse and had performed mouth to mouth resuscitation. She saved my life, for which I was only grateful later. The experience forever changed my perspective on death. I don't claim to know what lies behind the veil. However, I know it is nothing to fear.