To live with the awareness of mortality
May I live this day
in such a way
that if the Reaper comes
whispers and says
he will be back morrow
to take it all away
I would have no urge
to change the engagements
waiting on my tray.
A thought I get sometimes is that if I became aware that tomorrow was to be my last day, then in today would I drop everything I had planned to do and read “Man’s Search for Meaning” instead, or would I be comfortable enough with what I had planned to do in the first place and would not care whether I have read Victor Frankl’s book or not?
However, if I were to regret not reading the book, why would I not go ahead and read it anyway whether I knew I am to die tomorrow or not.
In essence, if I were to live in a way that is in harmony with the awareness of my mortality, knowing or not knowing which day I will die has no relevance. This is so because either way there nothing I need to change.
On the other hand, if the knowledge of the day I die is going to be pertinent in the context of the way I live, and thereby, urges me to make some tweaks, why would I not live in that way to begin with?
Because I will never know the day I am going to die — it could be tomorrow, or the day after, or the same date as today the next year — I should always be packed and prepared to leave.
