Today is a Good Day to Die
A 73 -year-old American in Madrid tells it like it is.
My friend, author Marsha Scarbrough, wrote this article, which I am publishing with her permission:
As I boot up my computer this morning, the Internet tells me that Coronavirus has taken more than 7,000 lives in Spain. I’m in my 16th day of lockdown in Madrid, the city hardest hit in the country. Although I feel fine, my thoughts turn toward death.
I think, “today is a good day to die.”
In my studies with Native American medicine teachers, this phrase was a touchstone offered to help us keep life in balance. Often before a sweatlodge ceremony, someone who was about to enter the lodge for the first time would be gripped by fear and blurt out, “I’m afraid I’m going to die!” The calm, measured answer from the facilitator was always, “You are going to die. I guarantee it. I hope it won’t be today.”
We are all going to die. There are no survivors on this planet. Death is as natural as breathing. Now, take a breath and release it out into the universe. What a blessing that you are alive in this minute.
In some Native American cultures, every person had a “death song.” This was a song or poem that you wrote as a young person and embellished over the course of your life. It was to be sung at the moment just before your…
