This is a helpful definition of life as it illustrates the processional nature of the system of life. Living organisms find it imperative to interact with their surrounding environments precisely through such processes as eating, drinking, producing chemicals, growing and eliminating wastes. It is also important to recognize life as interacting with other living organisms to successfully survive. Life has difficulty surviving when just one organism is trying to survive with no other living organisms around. This is evident when thinking of animals and humans, many of which thrive on their interactions with others and find family relations essential to survival.
Life is more, though, than just defining characteristics.
Life is also a miracle to be embraced, loved and cherished by those who experience it. Although Hartmann and Miller also identify death as the end of the process of life, it is my opinion that there is no true end to life, but that it is a continual process of the entire earth as a planet system. Even after organisms die, they continue to play roles in earth's biological and chemical processes. There have been many differing definitions put forward describing what life is in its most basic form. There is currently no consensus as to what separates living organisms from processes that may have been stepping stones for the first forms of life.