"To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death...We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom". -Montaigne
Why are we so afraid of death? Perhaps because we spend our entire lives avoiding it. We collect things and fill spaces in our minds to build our lives up. Yet once we sit. Sit in the silence, who are we? Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, and unnerving stranger with whom we have been living with, but we never really wanted to meet. Isn't that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noice and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with ourselves, our lives, and yes, even death? Let us learn not to deny death, but to embrace it. Just as we await and prepare for life, let us all await and prepare for death. Our society has a tremendous denial of death. Bj Miller, founder of the Zen Hospice Project, says it best, "If we love such moments ferociously, then maybe we can learn to live well,- not in spite of death, but because of it.
Wayward Adventures will be starting our "Dig Dying Project" and are currently looking for community partners to bring awareness, begin active conversations, and a sense of mindfulness, not only to how we choose to live our lives, but also, how we choose to die. For at the end of the day, Wayward will always be asking the question-"what story will you tell?"
