“Exploring life through fiction, together.”

Sometimes, I wonder how I’ll react when Death comes calling. After all, nobody gets off this ride alive. 

We don’t talk about it much, the final stop, so I don’t know where to aim. Should I try to die valiantly in battle like a Viking? Or pray I pass in my sleep? Should I hide so my family can remember me as I was? Or should I let them embrace me in my frailty?

Fiction Bite - They never said the end would be so pretty

My brain pours out.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

I should try to hold it in, stem the flow somehow. But I just stare, watching the drops glisten in the arc light that has been my only illumination for so long I’ve forgotten the sun.

It is my sun.

And it glistens a rainbow in each drop.

I’m dying, and not in the philosophical way.

Really dying.

And I smile, or what’s left of me does. The physical me is screaming. I just sit here, watching the rainbows fall.

Waiting for my chain to be cut loose. 

Quote of the Week

“If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die.” — Stephen King

Book of the month

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Final Words

Hopefully, I’ll have many years to ponder. I was moved when I read how people used to invite friends and family around when they knew they were dying. It gave them a chance to reconnect, to make amends. To say “I love you”.

Seamus Heaney texted his wife on his deathbed. “Noli Timere” or “Don’t be afraid.”

I think I’d be happy if I could embody those words. At the end, and now.

Nole timere.

Be not afraid.

Do you ever think about your death? Who would you like to speak to if you had the chance? What would you like to do before that time comes? Would you be willing to hit reply? It’d make my day to hear from you.

With Love,

Josiah

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