Death Meditation XVIII
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Daily Meditation #387–3/19/2023
“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil,” as goes the infamous line from Psalm 23:4.
The line that fewer may remember is the follow up:
“for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
As a Christian, I certainly find solace in knowing my Lord is always with me — as is the possibility of death.
Something as unexpected as that all possible aneurysm is always there, waiting.
But, even for someone who doesn’t believe, we can find peace in inevitability as well.
Death is the ultimate plan for all of us.
We don’t know if we have a guaranteed meal next year.
We don’t know the weather for next month.
We don’t know if our furnace works next winter.
But, we do know, someday, death is waiting.
Taking time to meditate on death and mortality is healthy and productive for us — it is mentally walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
It is seeking for peace in understanding.
Seeking for peace and preparation to lose anyone and everyone at any moment.
Death is a limitation.
Limitations are what make anything more meaningful — if we all lived forever and we knew it, wouldn’t it sort of trivialize things like relationships? Eating well? Working hard?
Accept death.
Accept mortality.
You have no choice, so you may as well take the time to consider it and embrace it so that when your time comes (and those you love dearly), death holds no sting.
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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
