365QOD- Day1267

Daily Death

“We need to practice death daily”- Socrates

In Day253, I wrote about the idea of  Ichi-nichi issho.

"Ichi-nichi issho:  'Each day is a lifetime.'  We arise in the morning newly born.  As we pass through the day, we age and gain experience.  When we tire at day's end, we 'die' and take our rest.  That one arc serves as a miniature of our entire life.  What we do during a single day- and how we do it- becomes the foundation of our whole lifetime.  For what is life but the sum of our days?..."

Notice that Socrates' advice is additive to the Ichi-nichi issho concept.  The Ichi-nichi issho concept teaches us that we must see our day as a smaller version of our whole life.  

It mimics the journey that we undertake except it is in one day.  What and how we do that one day becomes the foundation for the life quality that we live.

Socrates’ advice is that we need to practice dying daily.  We have to look at the end of the day not as simply a miniature version of our life but as the end of our life.  When our head hits the pillow, we need to be ready to never again wake up from our sleep. 

The big question is, “What would you want to squeeze in before that last moment?”  Who would you want to reach out and thank and say good bye? Who touched your heart today?

It makes you wonder what difference it would make if you lived life as Socrates suggests.  Would we be gentler?  Would we leave things undone?  Would we leave things unsaid?  These are things that we currently do every day and would have to drastically change because we would not be guaranteed a tomorrow.

Today’s question is:

“Do you practice daily death?”