Someday, We Will Die |Lynne Meredith Golodner

"I remember when my grandmother died thinking and writing about how we work so hard to plan our entry into this world, with birth plans and preparation classes, to achieve the most peaceful and healthy birth. But when it comes to exiting this world, which, yes, we all will eventually do, we shy away, afraid of the unknown.

Let’s just say it: we don’t know what happens after we die. Where we go, whether we are aware, whether we come back. It is all a big black blank canvas.

What’s life worth if I can’t take the chance of jumping off the cliff into the waiting waters below?
And so we push it from our minds, convinced it will never really happen to us, or if it does, it will surely be a long time away from now. So we don’t need to think about it, or focus on it, or live as if it’s coming.

But it is coming.

So that fight we had last week? Why did we waste the time?

The zipline I was afraid to leap onto? Why didn't I just try?

We skirt the border of safe and comfortable and familiar, living so far from the edge because we want to protect…what, exactly?

If we lived as if today were the only day, or perhaps the last day, we would live so differently. We might not immerse ourselves in the mania of get-work-done or clean-the-house or save-money. We might jump into the pool or leap off the clip into the cold, cold lake or join a rowing team because the river is there and our hearts are beating and we have the strength to pull those oars and bend our knees and go-go-go along the water’s surface."



Someday, We Will Die |Lynne Meredith Golodner