Musings on Mortality
Today, I’d like to share with you all a passage from my journals from 2021 — a musing that was actually written deep in the middle of the pandemic when there was a lot of suffering and a lot of darkness and hardship for people everywhere, which led me to think more about mortality and how precious and vulnerable life really is.
Musings on Mortality
Let’s always remember the brevity of life. Sure, that awareness is enough to make us sad… but it also reminds us of the gift, the wonder, the miracle of it all.
The question is not “why is life so short?” but rather “what am I going to do with my one, brief, beautiful life?”
Long ago, I realized that the fact of mortality gives us all a choice: We can live our lives in fear of death, or in denial of death. Or, whatever happens in our lives, whatever the world throws at us — we can choose to see our finite lives as a lovely, magical gift — our one-time opportunity to be all that we can be. To explore and discover. To smell apple blossoms in springtime. To love fully and freely. To do whatever good we can for the world. To tell our own unique story.
With every passing day, I feel increasingly grateful for the gift of life. It has inspired me to grow in surprising ways. It has brought enduring meaning, great challenges, fresh baked bread, and true love. And it has led me to find sources of hope and renewal that still inspire me every day.
