Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘We don’t have to wait until we are dying to consider what it means to live freely. For all of us, reconceptualizing death as a guide can help us to begin an ongoing conversation with ourselves about who we are and what we’d like our lives to mean. Think about how you spent the last six months. What and who brought you fulfillment and joy? What would you do differently if you could? If those were the last six months of your life, what would your regrets be?

These questions, deceptively simple, are as commonplace and ordinary as death itself. Our answers to these questions evolve as our lives unfold. What and who seems to matter the most to you right now may change. If we begin this inquiry before death arrives, we may die as fully as we have lived.

Rearranging our waning lives around previously buried desires isn’t always practical or possible, emotionally or financially. But even if we cannot upend our existence in the name of slumbering passions, we can find freedom in the life the body offers, paying attention to the burn of grief and the pulse of joy, the intensity of an embrace or the taste of butter on toast. Even as we die, our bodies are capable of more than devolution from illness.’ (from the New York Times)