A Few Thoughts on Death

By Nick Blaylock–

With respects to All Saints Day and All Souls Day…

I cannot more respectfully talk about death than by shutting up.

We are all becoming part of the earth, reentering the womb from which she birthed us.

Go do something – stretch yourself, give your life away to someone. Stop your schedule and see to someone else’s. Your ideals, shelve for the ideals of another, or at least entertain them. Find what matters to another and try it on. Listen to the heart beat of your most beloved, then, your least.

Everyone has a to do list. They only exist to not be finished. If we could finish them we probably would not need them in the first place.

Do not worry about proving anything about yourself, or to yourself for that matter; your life will do that for you, regardless if you listen to this advice or not. Do your best to do your best. After all, the flowers only shine as much as they can, and no less. (Matthew 6:28)

If you do not often, go lay in the grass to feel the earth, or in a public space to feel the eyes of curious and/or judgmental onlookers. If you regularly do activities like this, get back to work. Spend an entire work day contemplating exactly how your job contributes to the greater good, because they all do. That being said, do not let this distract you from doing that important job. On those notes: work freaking hard, and do not post about it.

Whatever you feel will balance your day, do that. If you jog, follow a snail. If you are the snail, well I am not sure – find some snail running shoes or something.

What if:  You feel empty… just start pouring, you might find how full you actually are. You feel full, by looking for what you could receive, you might find how empty you actually are. Lean into it. Live in the grey… oh by the by, you can only get a good grey with a stark black and white.

Listen, listen, listen. Listen to the cashier. Listen to the squirrel and the dog. Listen to the environment. Above all, listen to the child – they will teach you how to listen to everything else. “Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (James 1:19).

(Ironic that I am blabbering on about listening…)

Now, I understand for someone to be listening someone else has to be talking. Maybe it is not your day to listen… On that note, find someone to talk to. There is also a time to be angry.

Be conflicted, be convicted.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to not put pressure on yourself.

And for God’s sake, do not do any of this for your own enlightenment. If you do, you’ve missed the whole point. Do it, any of it, because the other deserves it, because life deserves it.

If death is going to happen anyway, do everything you can to make sure it is the most miserable when it comes. On that note, go read A. A. Milne. If you find half the relationship that Pooh and Piglet had, you are doing just fine. “How [fortunate] I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” – A. A. Milne

Oh, and do not “live like you are dying”, that is selfish. Live like you are living.

How will you become part of the earth?

“To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, let it go.” – Mary Oliver