24 Hours to Live 10-13-08

We are made up a few million cells, alright more than that.  We are flesh, blood, and bone.  We are mammals, we are human; but most importantly, we are animals.  Animals so complex and unsatisfied with this existence, we've created another.  Entry into this other existence is achieved by following the rules and believing in it.  Belief in an existence that cannot be proven to exist is called faith.  Unfortunately, faith also allows people to reject whats right in front of them.

What is it within us that so desperately wants to deny the truth?  Fear, I presume, based on the many uncertainties of life and the greatest uncertainty of death.  We will all one day be gone from this place, this life, this consciousness and existence.  Only when we completely and honestly accept the inevitability of death can we put those fears a side and live free of them.  If we just step back and watch the truth of the world, we'd find our answers all around us, unexplainable by numbers and formulas.  I do not have faith in the promises or sermons of man.  It is certain knowledge that sustains me and guides me with a profound sense of calm.

I am dying with every breath I take and I'm not afraid.  My approaching death is important to keep in mind - not to complain or worry - but simply because only with the certain knowledge that I will die, can I truly begin to live.  I am not afraid to die.  I appreciate this fact, it is the simple truth.  I do not dwell on my own mortality, but understand and appreciate that this is the only existence I will have.  Throwing away precious hours thinking of the inevitable is foolish, and yet, I've been asked to do just that.

I've been asked to write about my last 24 hours of life.  Specifically, how I would spend those hours.  I wish I could write a fairy tale for you.  I can't.  I've asked myself that when my day does come, will I even know its my last?  I don't believe so.  We make choices about how we will live; I don't believe we have so much say about how we will die.  Controlling the truth of death, whatever our desperation is not a possibility.  We can only make certain that the life we have is as rich as it can be.  It doesn't matter what we do on our last day; It's every day up to our last that matters, and when death does come for me, I'll be ready.