After years of battling crippling depression and suicidal ideation, I’m finally learning what it means to me to choose life. Where I come from, a good death is something to earn, and earning a good death is a birthright. So I’ve come up with a short list of my own personal pathways to this elusive birthright:
You might earn a good death by:
- Respecting the time you’re given.
- Fighting for each day as if it were your last.
- Using the talents and intention you were given to serve with a burning fire tempered by patience and humility.
- Expect nothing.
- Follow your heart.
- Make difficult choices.
- Never give up.
- Live like a soldier… A warrior for peace.
- Forgive even when you’re unforgiven.
- Play your part in building the future, however big or small.
- Know that your time here is limited.
- Claim that “trouble don’t last always.”
- Dig in. Teach others how to do the same.
- Teach others to respect themselves.
- Practice laughter and gentleness fervently.
- Don’t over simplify.
- Be “available” to the nooks and crannies of experience.
- Own it all.
- Say yes!
- Live by the creed “won’t bow down, don’t know how.”
- Don’t get got. Get grown instead.
- Hopelessness has no more value than hope. Abandon both.
- Chop the wood and carry the water.
- Learn to be still.
- Be gracious when death comes, but don’t invite it.
- Do your duty. Earn your traveling shoes.