The Lesson of Death

Not one person comes into this world knowing the day they are going to die. Until that day arrives unbeknownst to us, we live life to the best of our ability. Some of us stumble through with figuratively cut up and perpetually scarred up knees, other seem to light drift through on a sailboat’s perfect breeze. However, there is a lesson in death. The lesson I speak of is not the one in which we are facing our impending death, but the one glean from the death of another, a person you knew.

Grieving is conducted a myriad of ways; many cry, some laugh, other devote themselves to a higher cause, some drink themselves into oblivion. There is a lesson of death. The lesson is a simple one and what one takes away from it is up to them. Life is fleeting. We have an undefined amount of time to walk this earth and leave our mark or impression on it. Another lesson, life is ever changing.

This ever changing is what I want to reflect upon. A person can be there one moment and gone in a blink of an eye. We are always in a state of change; that is the one constant we have. What we do with the changes constantly occurring in our lives essentially define a part of who we are? We make mistakes all the time. What changes the cycle of changes is what we learn from those mistakes. At the moment, I am more interested in what death teaches us.

Think for a moment about a dear person who has left your life for good. How did you feel? Well, most would say sad. To find death’s lesson, look a little deeper. Did you feel inspired to do something, anything? Though I am placing no bets, whether consciously or unconsciously you did. A common enough example: If an opportunity was presented to see the lost love one, but was turned down because you were simply too busy, there is guilt. You regret not taking that last opportunity, though at the time you didn’t think it was going to be the last opportunity. In the loss of this love one, did you find yourself making a greater opportunity to connect to love ones still alive or deciding you were not too busy to spend time with friends, family or members of your community. This is death’s lesson, or perhaps a double-edged blessing. We are not able to change our past, but we can shape our future.

This is the vital lesson we can take away. We may not be able to take back hurtful words we have spoken; we may not be able be there for someone when they may have needed us most; and we may not be able to go back and do something we meant do, however, we get to shape our future. We can apologize for hurtful words or actions. We can make ourselves available when someone desperately needs us. We can do those things that we were intending to. Instead of believing we have infinite time to mend broken or damaged relationships; that someone else will be there in a person’s darkest hour; that we will get around to acting on our intentions, we can learn to act now. To take each finite moment we are here and live life as if this were the last day, hour we have to live.

Death’s ultimate lesson: to live life to the fullest, not to let it drift by.

Fallen Angel