I’M GOING TO DIE

Part of why You're Going to Die is so personally precious to me is because it regularly asks that I take responsibility for my own death; even imbedded in the most mundane logistic & organizational details I have this truth gazing back at me: I’M GOING TO DIE. And it’s intimately my work in a uniquely necessary way that might be different for you. And for that reason, it’s important that this movement & nonprofit is run by non-priests, non-doctors, non-therapists, non-“I WENT TO SCHOOL TO FIGURE THIS DEATH THING OUT IN A WAY YOU NEVER DID,” so it can remind all of us that our death is ours, & so awesomely valuable & LIFE-CHANGING that we should never completely hand it over to anyone else, but instead treat it as much our life’s work as all the living we so readily [sometimes begrudgingly] take responsibility for every day. And wildly, believe it or not, treating death with that level of honor & respect can actually deeply inspire how we take responsibility [sometimes begrudgingly!] for the living we do every day.

And that absolutely doesn’t mean we should never need or get help from a professional, someone who has done so much work to be able to help others, with the wise guidance & insight we deserve from those people... but right now, in your life, take every useful opportunity available to do the work of accepting, owning, integrating, sourcing, maybe even embracing & loving, your own death while you still can, while you’re still alive to do it.

Oh. And of course, per usual: GAWD IT’S ALL SO HARD. I hope my being in this life & my work with death offers at least that - the acknowledgement, the listening, the understanding, that it’s hard & we’re not alone in that fact.