The truth is hard to swallow, but I think we may well court death by postponing joy. “When you die,” says the Koran, “God will call upon you to account for all the permitted pleasures you did not enjoy while on earth.” In the Talmud, “A person will be called upon to account, on Judgment Day, for all the permitted pleasures he might have enjoyed but did not.”
No matter the pressures of daily living, no matter what sticky situation I find myself mired in, I can always source joy through expression and in participating in nature. If I find myself making excuses and justifications – some of them indeed compelling – it is important to recognize them for what they are so that I do not delay any longer.
A goal in raising consciousness, through whatever channels, is to open our eyes to what is around us, to awaken further to what it is that, with our thoughts and desires we are actually bringing about in a concrete physical sense.
If we kept death more in our sights, we would live that much more fully, prioritize like we’ve never done, dismiss our grievances and get on with engaging the best of ourselves. It’s just natural for humans to be lazy until driven to the precipice.
original painting © Amanda Johnson
