Wednesday, April 10
#DeadGoodApril #MoM
After a very early morning start and an event in Glasgow, we finally headed back down towards home and stopped at Dalrymple for a late lunch. After we’d settled in, chatted, ordered a starter, and were well onto the main, I had my first moment of contemplation. My eyes wandered for a few moments. There on the wall, just beyond our table, a pencil sketch. A ruin and a cemetery.
Death. Perfect! Time to death-contemplate! What did it matter that I was in the midst of a meal I really wanted as it was way past lunch and I’d been on the road since 5 am and fuelled by coffee alone. Death does not wait; so why should my death-contemplation!
In the Discourses, Book 1.1, Epictetus, via Arrian, contemplates the following:
“I must die. If I have to die now, I’m ready. If I am to die in a little while, then I’ll lunch now, because it’s now time for lunch. And when I’m done, then I’ll die. How? Just like a person who gives up what belongs to another.”
I’m not sure I was quite ready to die at that moment, but I guess this is what I’m working on. How lovely to learn to not worry about death and live fully right now.
I focused on the meal and on the moments I had with my husband across from me.
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