I've heard that it's common for people to say on their deathbed,
If I could just have one more.
.
.
I get it.
But why is it that this is so common?
It's actually very simple,
And you've probably heard it before.
Most of us rush through life,
Looking to the future.
And then,
When we arrive at that point beyond which there is no future,
We find ourselves looking back instead.
Of course,
There never was a future,
Beyond the imagination anyway.
And the one moment in time that has the power to solve this endemic anxiety is,
Of course,
The present moment.
The only moment that is ever real.
And the one that yet so few of us find appreciation for.
Why is it that so many people insist on concerning themselves with all moments,
But the one that's real?
Well,
It's because enjoying the present moment is to realize a contentment,
A peace,
A freedom that is independent of circumstances.
And this would be a disaster for capitalism.
Think about it.
If people were all doing more of the kinds of things we here wished for on deathbeds,
Then everyone would be spending more time with family and friends.
Taking long walks.
Painting.
Reading.
Dancing.
Singing.
And generally taking it easy.
We rarely,
Perhaps never,
Hear from people on their last legs that they wish they'd worked harder,
Saved more money or bought another car.
And yet this is what we're trained to spend our lives in pursuit of.
First we're socialized so that we're ready to follow orders in school.
Then curiosity is sacrificed for employability as we're narrowed into particular subjects of learning.
We go into student debt on the promise of a career in our chosen field.
We get a job in a different field.
We marry someone who doesn't tick all our boxes.
We get a promotion or feel depressed that we didn't.
We get pregnant before we're ready.
We mortgage a house and pay a bank a lot of money for lending us money we need because they made houses cost so much money.
We get another promotion or feel depressed that we didn't in order to afford repayments.
We're still working on student debt at this point.
We decide that we may as well have another child now and look forward to the freedom we desire in 18 more years.
We spend more money on things that we hope will help us to cope with the stresses of work and family life.
These things like alcohol or a car we can't afford actually make things worse.
We finally make it to the other side of raising children and find that any romance that was present in the beginning of our relationship was sacrificed to the practicalities of family life.
We divorce.
We have a midlife crisis.
We search for someone else desperately hoping that they will finally make us happy.
We find them.
They don't.
We make do.
We retire.
The lurking feeling that it was all for nothing finally has room to arise.
We distract ourselves from it.
We enjoy our family but our relationships with them are shallow.
We've not made the proper time to invest and get to know them deeply.
We wonder sometimes how we might remedy this but we haven't made time to cultivate the emotional capacity to feel comfortable sitting them down and telling them that we want to know them more deeply.
We do our best to suppress all of this along with the knowledge that we are at the end of life.
We receive a diagnosis.
We wind up on our deathbed in a moment just like this one wishing that we had spent more time with family and friends,
Taken long walks,
Painted,
Read,
Danced,
Sung,
Taking it easy.
We might express this.
We might not.
We die.
This is the typical model at least and yes I've painted a bleak picture as demonstration.
Why?
Because I want you to spend more time with your loved ones now.
I want you to take long walks now.
I want you to live your life as if everything you do is that one more time.
Because life is incredibly sweet when we live it in this way.
And when we enjoy ourselves like this our joy tends to spill over for those around us.
Wouldn't it be a delight if everyone lived in this way?
Wouldn't it be like heaven on earth?
And if we live our whole lives in heaven including even the moment of death then what room is there for regret?
