Facing death helps us cherish life
The Clarifying Lens of Mortality
We shy away from thoughts of death, as if ignoring mortality will somehow keep it at bay. But paradoxically, the opposite is true: by facing death squarely, we reclaim the sweetness of being alive.
Mortality awareness isn’t about being morbid. It’s about clarity. It’s about shaking hands with the fact that your life will one day end—so that, while you still have it, you remember what it’s worth.
The Jolt That Wakes Us Up
Think of what happens when you hear a frightening diagnosis or lose someone close. Suddenly, priorities reorder themselves. Petty grievances fade. The texture of the world sharpens. A sip of water, a touch from a loved one, a walk outside—all become precious.
Mortality awareness offers that same jolt, without needing a crisis. By remembering that time is finite, we see more clearly what is worth our energy and what is not.
The Ceremony of Living
Life Savor exists to provide this perspective—to serve as a kind of virtual near-death experience. It delivers us into those imagined last five minutes, when every moment of breath feels like a treasure.
By putting a frame around existence, mortality awareness turns life into a ceremony. It elevates the ordinary: the quiet morning light, the rhythm of footsteps, the laughter that would otherwise blur into the background.
As Sam Keen put it: “Contemplation… of our inevitable death… is, paradoxically, the tincture that adds sweetness to mortality.”
Not Morbid—But Liberating
Our culture often treats mortality as taboo, something to push aside. But avoidance doesn’t free us; it blinds us. The gift of mortality awareness is liberation—from trivial complaints, from inflated expectations, from the illusion that we have endless time to get it right.
Instead, it roots us in what is truly urgent: savoring the chance to love, to create, to experience, to simply be.
A Practice for Perspective
You don’t need to dwell on death every day. But you can borrow the lens of mortality when perspective slips.
- When life feels petty: Ask yourself, “If this were my last month alive, would this still matter?”
- When gratitude feels distant: Pause to imagine never waking up again. Then notice the astonishing fact that you did wake up today.
- When numbness sets in: Let mortality awareness dissolve the anesthetic of routine. Remember: someday, you won’t be here. But today, you are.
The Sweetness of Borrowed Time
Someday, you’ll wake up and find yourself dying. That is inevitable. But if you’re lucky, you’ll also have moments when you wake up and remember you’re still alive.
Mortality awareness is that wake-up call. It’s the paradoxical sweetness of knowing that life ends, which makes life now all the more vivid.
Don’t run from it. Let it guide you back to the gift you’ve already won: today.
