someday
Pssst… Hey. Hey you. Yeah, you. There’s something that I want to tell you and you’re probably not going to like it.
Ready?
You’ll be dead soon.
Now I know what you’re probably thinking. “That’s depressing.” Yeah, but that’s just your opinion about something that’s inevitable. But you know why you think it’s depressing? I mean, it’s just a fact – it points to the suchness of life and nothing more. But do you really know why you think it’s depressing? It’s probably not what you think…
The reason you think it’s depressing is not because of death itself. The reason you think it’s depressing is buried farther down inside of your subconscious. So let’s go digging real quick.
Go ahead and take a minute to sit with the phrase “I am going to die” and get present to what emotions, thoughts, and feelings come up for you. I’ll wait.
…
Does some part of you feel like crying? Does some part of you feel really sad? If you’re real still, you may uncover that the real reason you’re afraid of death isn’t really death. The real reason is life. More specifically, life unlived.
What is the life unlived? It’s the life you’ve always wanted and always knew was possible, but you buried under an unconscious pile of “have to do’s” and “should do’s” subconsciously hoping you will live forever and then someday something magical was going to happen and you will transform into the superhero you know you really are.
Well, here is the other part of the memo. That “someday” is Santa Claus, it’s a figment of your imagination. But that’s ok. That’s why you’re reading this right now.
So.
Let’s just go ahead and wake up for a second. From your life’s dream. Take a look at the clock. Sit in the nowness of now. What day is it? Today. Perfect. Get present to the current moment. It’s life itself.
Look around the room.
Now that you’ve been given this news – the unfortunate news that you have somewhere between a minute and 100 years left to live – and now that you have the current moment in your mind’s clutches – think about death again.
It’s coming. So what?
What do you have to lose? Everything. What will you lose? Everything. So what? We’re all in this together. It’s not personal, it’s just what’s so.
So what’s left?
Smile at death.
they're smiling at you
Because it’s coming anyway. So why not smile about it? What you’re actually smiling at is life – life that’s being lived right now.
When you do smile, you’ll start taking life a lot less seriously. And that’s when you can start laughing at that thing that you were taking so seriously earlier today. Remember that thing? The one you made a fuss about? Yeah, it’s silly, isn’t it?
It’s ok. We’re silly, us humans.
So take this moment and do something – anything, that makes you feel alive. Or do something that makes you feel silly. Do a handstand (and you will feel both). Why? Because someday you will not be able to anymore. And that someday is not a figment of your imagination.
You don’t have much time left. Go!
You life is riding on it. *smile*
photo credit: gruntzooki
Psssst. Most people are already dead
I don’t find it depressing. It’s only depressing to people who are not wiggling life’s toes on a moment-to-moment basis, and it’s only depressing because they think that they can live “later”, knowing full well within that death means that “later” isn’t necessarily going to come. You can’t procrastinate life and trying makes you depressed about your procrastination
It feels to me like people’s overall experience of life – their “consciousness” – gets moulded through the way they live, like a constantly updated work in progress, and they slowly decline into a blurry existence of excuses and yuck. And from that existence they rationalise not living and buy the exuses that they feed themselves. The only way outta it, as far as i can tell, is to systematically mould your consciousness into a less diluted, richer experience of life… to think of consciousness and your overall experience of reality as SillyPutty. Every action you take slightly alters the way that you experience life. Smile at somebody and you feel better from then on. Get angry and you decline into yuck land a little.
Nevermind smiling,
I’m gonna lick death’s face and make it happy to be alive
Really like the way you wrote this btw. moneymoneymoney. +stumbled too.
Hope all’s well mate
keep it reals
alex – unleash reality
Thanks for your thoughts, Alex. I love your site, your way of thinking, and the way you write. thanks for the stumble and keep it unreals ~M
Brilliant and on point! Stop worrying about death and just live!
I told my family that I do not want any sad music and dark colors at my funeral.
What I do want is bright vibrant colors and loud party atmosphere…. because if I am somewhere in the afterlife and see that, I WILL come back to haunt them. PERIOD!
that reminds me of one of my favorite parts of the Andy Warhol PBS documentary. it’s a pivotal moment in his life – he goes to Bali and sees people celebrating and dancing at a funeral – and that makes him realize – it’s all about perspective, everything depends on your perspective
I feel you teevee. I’ve been to only one funeral where it was truly a celebration of the life lived and encouragement for the rest of us to keep living. I may request a party as well. =oD
That is a very good way to look at it. Most people go through life trying not think about dying, and hiding from any perceived dangers. That must be scary at the end if they’ve never dealt with it.
I can only imagine… (obviously
Went and played hockey for the first time in over a year … bodychecking/getting bodychecked will make you feel alive like nothing else. Thanks for the timely post, living consciously makes existence SO much richer!
never played hockey – gives me something to add to my “would be cool to do list” thanks
Alright Markus (and the other guys)
I will accept all accusations that I’m a punk because my eyes got a little misty while I read this post.
*sniffs*
*reaches for tissue*
*sighs*
Somewhere upon entering corporate american five years ago I lost me: my verve, my fight, my zest. It’s like I took my free spirit and caged it and I’ve been wandering through the past five years trying to grab on to projects, people and ideas that I never believed in because I was looking for that energy that was taken away. WTF am I doing? I’m so lost sometimes and I’m surrounded by people that are okay being in the rat race, the cages, the hamster wheel. Sometimes I just want to scream, “I’m not supposed to be here!”
I’ve been telling myself this for 6 months:
-What is the life unlived? It’s the life you’ve always wanted and always knew was possible, but you buried under an unconscious pile of “have to do’s” and “should do’s” subconsciously hoping you will live forever and then someday something magical was going to happen and you will transform into the superhero you know you really are. Well, here is the other part of the memo. That “someday” is Santa Claus, it’s a figment of your imagination.-
SCREW YOU MARKUS, get out of my head! No one asked you to be honest and put a mirror in my face. I love you, man. Keep it coming! I don’t want to die…yet.