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“Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love”
Rilke wrote this while dying from leukaemia. There is nothing like death to bring us into the present moment with such painful clarity. It is by grace and random chance that any one of us exists at all, so don’t squander your life with constant escapism. In the words of Soren Kierkegaard, ‘(of) all ridiculous things the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy—to be a man who is brisk about his food and his work.’ Don’t rush. Don’t be “productive”. Death would tell you: be intentional, take care in what you do, and savour every moment, living as if everything and everyone might not be here tomorrow.