Dying

Ugh….there it is. In black and….a white background. With most certainty, I will be dying of Advanced Breast Cancer at a young (-ish) age; there is no cure for dying. While I am not immediately dying as ‘in the throws of death’ (where did that horrible term even come from?!) but progressing much much sooner towards the inevitable obituary I had planned to write at age 90 – ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ And while I experience the painful and intimate certainty of walking literally through the valley of shadows and death, with both existential crises and curiosity due to the immediacy of my predicament, I do appreciate being of service to others in reminding them silently with a soft smile of our inevitable and shared humanity. How we share this walk towards it, how we are living knowing it, moving beyond all the cliches around it.