And now, the death of a dear relative has brought the idea of death closer to home than ever before.

During my first ever meditation last year, a voice whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry too much about anything. We’re merely here for a moment of a moment.” We live and die within a breath of the universe. Many won’t find this comforting, but to me, I can’t even explain it, it was.

To be honest, I’m okay just being matter borrowed from stars, organized for a brief, wondrous instant into a being that lives and loves and creates and takes joy in beautiful things. Someday I’ll be gone just as quickly as I came, and my atoms will return to the cosmos as if I never lived.

But I did live. I still do. And I am eternally glad for the chance.