Dear Death,

I want to get to know you,
Before you come visit me.
I want thoughts and feelings of you to dance around my heart and mind.
I want to know why everyone is so scared of you,
Is it okay not to be?

What are you anyway?
How will you come to me?  Will I know it is you?
Will I be with those I love?
Will I look back with regret at not taking those chances?
Will I be at peace with the person I have become, and the person I did not?

Can you be my teacher?
Is it possible to remind me of your reality, without making me tremble?
Can you please teach me about the finality of this body?
About the impermanence of my name, my image, my achievements, my mistakes.

I want to sink into the mystery of non-existence.
Death, is there such a thing as non-existence?

I want to think about you for a few brief moments each day.
I want the idea of you to not scare me, but inspire me to love deeper, laugh easier and feel lighter.

Will I see bright lights, or never see light again?
Will I be swept into the wind?
Or sink deep into the roots of the Earth?
Will I become the spark of life in that mother’s womb?

Please death, allow your mystery to illuminate my perception of this life.

I believe you would be an incredible advisor.
Truly grasping how limited my time here is, would probably change things wouldn’t it?
If I deeply understood what it meant to die, how would I live differently?
How would I love differently?

Death,
Can you remind me that I am only here for a few brief moments?
So that when you arrive to embrace me,
I will be ready.

 

Relephant: 

What Death Teaches Us.

 

Author: Cassandra Cornacchia

Editor: Travis May

Photos:  Author’s Own