Your Death is Not Yours

Your Life is Not Yours

by Nicklas Goke

Your entire life, death is with you. You know it’s coming. It knows it’s coming. It’s just a matter of when.

Death is your neighbor, and one day, he’ll come over. The funny thing is when he does, you’ll be the least affected.

“Interesting expression, ‘taking your own life,’” Sherlock Holmes once remarked. “Taking it from who? Once it’s over, it’s not you who’ll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else.”

We tend to think death is the worst thing that can happen to us, but actually, it is the worst thing that can happen to the people we love. Our death, that is.

When we live in fear of death, we often try to take ridiculous precautions, like working hard to build “a legacy,” whatever that means, or amassing a fortune we’ll never get to spend. Ironically, we might neglect the very people who’ll bear the brunt of our departure in the process.

Death is what gives life meaning. If our time wasn’t limited, it wouldn’t have any value. And yet, if we spend our entire lives preparing for our death, we’ll be the only ones prepared when, in fact, we’re the ones who least need to be. How will everybody else feel about our death? Will they be ready?

We can’t guarantee how other people will handle our passing, and it’s not our job to manage other people’s minds and feelings. Still, it’s worth considering how you split your time between things you want to do for yourself before you die vs things you want to do with and for others.

After you die, you’ll no longer be around to regret the things you haven’t done. The people who love you, however, will miss every minute they didn’t get to spend with you.

Your death is not yours. Your life is the part that matters. Make it count.