The facts

It is not death that we fear but rather, life.

In this endless medley of circles we cut off our oxygen, pretend that we are breathing, pretend that we are not breathing, declare war on every atom that enters our lungs.

It is death, death we fear, we declare!! at the top of our voices.

We dance as though on tightropes.

It is not death that we most fear, but a life well lived, love and commitment, dreams fulfilled, failure, success.

We are so afraid to live that we believe ourselves perpetually ill or on the way to death, that great, unpreventable disaster.

We live inside the trauma of our own mortality so wholeheartedly, that we commit to waking up ill each day, being witnesses to the slow, cellular decay of our frail human bodies.

What if we say tomorrow- one day- we will live not in the shadow of death but in the sunrise of the astounding miracle of our aliveness.

Don’t learn the lesson of your aliveness too late, my lovely.

This poem is dedicated to the memory of Sara Yehudis. May her memory be a blessing and a comfort.