How does death change your perspective?
Death doesn’t change it. Death defines it.
In the absence of finality, we take things for granted. The moment there is no risk of loss or of an ending, we have no need for urgency or gravity in the present moment. If there is always going to be more, we have no reason to rush to make the most of what we have.
The only guarantee in life is that it will end. Unfortunately, because we survive more moments than we succumb to, meaning that death only happens once while life happens every day, we take life for granted and assume that death will happen at some point in the future.
Life should not be about what we wish to accomplish before we die. That’s a transactional, fear-based approach to life that cheats us out of life itself. Instead, it should be celebrated in the moment because of what we are capable of celebrating, and not because we need to celebrate it before it is lost. That’s how moments of joy are created that make life worth living, and death a warm end to a beautiful life.
Death-bed regrets only take hold if we didn’t live life meaningfully. And we fail to live life meaningfully if we’re fearing what the future holds, or holding on to the pain or memories of the past. Those memories were created by what happened in those moments, not by preoccupying ourselves with what was to come.
So, if you contemplate death, or you contemplate the impact of the past on who you are now, you’re missing out on life. Because life is what is happening right now. Everything else is either a memory, a dream, or a preemptive nightmare. It’s not life.
Does this resonate?