“Stop whatever you’re doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won’t be able to do this anymore?” —Marcus Aurelius
These days I feel more at home with the idea of darkness and death.
Darkness knows me well. I have seen him many times in my life in the decade spent as a Marine.
The tragic passing of Kobe Bryant and eight others unexpectedly reminds me that death is always knocking at our door.
If we are lucky to be alive, are we lucky to die an honorable death?
I welcome death, and I am not afraid of what he will bring.
Today, I find myself challenging my relationship with death. Doesn’t everything die, at least in some shape or form in our lives aside from our physical body?
Being afraid of death is a natural feeling, but maybe it’s one we need to challenge a bit more. I believe our relationship to death comes from our ability to see life outside the box we live in and accept that no matter what we have in life, it could all be gone in a split moment.
I could leave this earth seconds after I hit submit on this journal entry, and this will be my reminder to never stop living my life with purpose and intent.
I don’t think darkness makes life pointless.
In fact, it is a necessary reminder that being on this earth here, in this present moment, is, in fact, a privilege that many of us take for granted.
Life will most certainly suck at times. We often learn the hard way that our world becomes governed by external factors, and we will not always get what we want.
But I believe this reminder that darkness is always upon us, is where we will learn how to lean into life fully.
I am no longer a slave to darkness, but rather a man who is curious about the life he has been given.
GK