In many wisdom traditions there’s a knife-edge teaching that encourages one to let death be an ally. This means living today as if it’s our last. This means looking death in the eye, rather than pushing it as far away as possible. This means finally recognizing that perhaps all that we put off for another day may not get a chance to be.
How would today be different for you if you lived it as if it were one of your last?
What precious and perishable beauty is yours for today only, just waiting for your acknowledgment?
Who are you in this moment, perfectly, just as you are?
Embracing death as an ally can also mean waking up to what’s dying in our life even now. One of my favorite quotes is from Norman Cousins who said, “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
What’s dying inside you now?
What dies inside you when you abdicate your power-from-within?
What dies inside us when we let other people tell us who and how to be?
What dies inside us when we give up our wild dreams, year after year?
What dies within us when we keep avoiding the changes that we know we need to make, even if they terrify us?
What will it take for you to fully live now?
It’s time to really live, not die slowly.
So I challenge you to let death be your ally today!
There’s too much at stake not to.
Today’s the last day to join our tele-class for women Unraveling Curses, Reweaving Selves, that starts tonight. There’s still room for a couple more women to join us, so let me know soon if this speaks to you.
