Make it beautiful

№ 23 ☼ Fear ☼ Death ☼ Life ☼ 377 words ☼ 1 minute

“Rehearse death” – Epicurus

This is not a morbid practice. Length of time is not the proper measure of a life. An awareness of the end compels you to live life more densely, more fully. So this is what it means to rehearse death:

Familiarize yourself with that unescapable thing that you fear the most because that is the thing that prevents you from truly living.

We hide from what we fear. In doing so, we hide from life! You will not escape danger or dread. Life is frequently overwhelming and terrifying. Tragedy comes for us all. That is why, if given the option, we will choose the path of least resistance, the path of comfort. But where does that path lead? What does that path produce? When what we fear finally catches up with us, we will be wholly unprepared for it.

“The Chinese believe that before you can conquer a beast, you first must make it beautiful.” — Kay Redfield Jamison / An Unquiet Mind

Life does not reward those who are passive and sitting on the sidelines. You cannot watch life happen, hoping that you will escape the worst of it. So it is better to embrace the thing you fear. Befriend it. Make it beautiful. Contend with it. In doing so, you will conquer it. That is the path to life. The greatest rewards lie in the places that we fear the most. Conquering what we fear is how we live in to our highest potential. 

Rehearsing death is a practice that keeps us in the presence of hardship so that we cannot ignore it. Such a practice produces strength, character, and resilience. And what we have gained through hardship will not abandon us. Because we earned it through the fire, it will remain when we face terrifying existential threats. 

Once you have made it your habit to face the thing you fear the most, there is hardly anything left to fear in this world. You will not be startled by lesser misfortune or unfavorable circumstances. You are familiar with them. You have rehearsed this. You have made it beautiful. You will not lose your mind in the face of fear. You will survive. You will pass through. And you will go further.