At one point in our lives, we learn of the perennial reality of death, and how absolute it is.
If you are lucky, you will have learned this earlier in life rather than late.
In order to truly appreciate our own lives, we must experience this realization of death.
Everyone has their own beliefs about what death will bring;
an afterlife, eternal darkness, reincarnation...
Yet it remains, and always will remain an unanswerable mystery.
Nothing we predict or hypothesize will change the fact that everyone will die, always.
This being true; death awaits everyone, so should we have any reason to fear it?
Most, if not all people have some sort of existential crisis at one point in their lives.
I remember clearly, I was 14.
I was on vacation in Mexico, taking a shower. It was one of the best vacations I had ever had.
I had no reason to worry or panic about anything; the feeling of bliss and relaxation transformed into fear.
Fearing an end to this dream vacation, I started to realize how quickly life passes you by.
I came to the realization that one day I will die, along with everyone I know and love.
It was in this moment, where I felt a fear I had never felt in my life.
I thought of my loved one's and became filled with dread at the thought of losing them forever.
It was painful to think about, but it was inevitable.
Chills ran down my spine at the thought that one day I won't have a consciousness or any mind at all.
Just darkness, if it can even be called darkness.
This fear struck me numerous times after this vacation. For years almost, I had issues dealing with this fate.
Until one day, a friend of mine showed me a very enlightening perspective.
The sun rises and sets every day.
We know this to be inevitable, and being afraid of such happening would be foolish.
We cannot change the inevitable, therefore, being afraid of the inevitable is pointless.
Much like the sunrise, we are born into a new day. We do not fear the sunset, for it is always occurring. The moment the sun rises it begins to set.
Like our lives.
We live in the moment until we don't anymore.
This realization was the first step in learning that fearing death is silly.
It is something we must confront.
We can spend our lives fearing one moment until that one moment comes and we realize we spent most of our life fearing this moment. That's no way to live.
We can live in the moment, appreciate all we have, take risks.
THANKS FOR READING
Stay Awesome
-Zey
