Death illuminates the fact that this very moment is all we really have in this life.

(3) The lessons of death can be learned now. We don’t need to wait until our Lists of Human Experience are blank to embrace the wisdom of death. We have this precise moment to work on the things that give us meaning, to embrace this existence we’ve been gifted, and to tell the people we love most that we love them.

(2) Self-identity is impermanent, so embrace the changes as they come. Nothing is immune to Death’s eraser, so there is no point in desperately holding onto some illusory version of yourself. Loosening the grip you have on your identity can lessen the fear and anxiety that typically accompany the winds of change.

(1) Remember that Life and Death live on the same side of the same coin. Death is not idly waiting for us at the end of our journeys—no, it is always with us in the lives we lead now. Being acutely aware of this allows us to reflect on what really matters, and keeps us open to the new perspectives that Life has in store for us.

While performing a deep dive on death can seem like a difficult thing to do, I’ve found that contemplating death in this manner actually teaches us what it means to live a fuller life. There are many perspectives that can be shared here, but I think the key takeaways are the following:

This chasm between death as a concept and death in its real form is one of the most difficult spaces we have to navigate. While the former can motivate us to live our lives fully, the latter can devastate us and introduce unmanageable levels of grief.

There seems to be no proper way to bridge the emotional gap between a loved one’s existence and a loved one’s death. Even families that are fully aware of when their loved one will pass still cannot prepare themselves for when it actually happens.

And this pain stings the hardest when Death removes our experiences in the form of our loved ones.

Sometimes we are reminded that he also has the ability to hurt us deeply.