A Day in December

In the morning of 30 December 2023, I noticed these flowers by the side of the street. They were rather small yet the zoom of my mobile phone helped me see them up close. I felt so fascinated that I decided in the late afternoon to go and take some more photos – but the short life of these plants had already ended.

When reading online news during that day I noticed that a filmmaker, whose name did not mean anything to me, had suddenly died. Shortly before his death at 45, he had felt an occasional headache that he however didn't pay much attention to. When after a trip to South Africa, he didn't feel well he went to see a doctor, was diagnosed with an aggressive braintumor and died shortly after the surgery, twelve days after he was diagnosed with cancer.

To me, these two events bring to mind that life is not only short but also, in the case of the 45-year old, totally unpredictable. And although we know that, we do not understand it. At least I don't. Generally speaking that is. In this very moment however I did.

In the evening, during an animated discussion, I quoted a Zen master who once said that most people when asked what they expect from life say: to die serenely and peacefully. That is wrong, the master opined, they should live serenely and peacefully. And then added: And this is easy. You simply have to do it. Whenever I take the time to think about this, I experience some moments when I know for sure that this is true.

Well, to live serenely and peacefully might be easy when you live in a cave or meditate on top of a mountain, when however you have little children and got tons of things to do ... remarked a young mother at the table. Everybody laughed and I asked myself what the Zen master would have said to this. I would think something along these lines: to try to live serenely and peacefully is an attitude and shouldn't depend on the circumstances. Needless to say, this is a very high goal – and this is why we are well advised to pursue it. Sure, we will most probably fail – and then have the chance to try again. For this is, in my view, what we are here for.