Today is a good day to die!

 "Today is a good day to die!"
As a faithful Trekker, I always attributed that phrase to Worf, the resident Klingon. It was a cry used by all faithful Klingon warriors as they engaged in battle.
But as I researched this blog post, I found that - as much of Star Trek lure turns out to be - it is based on our own human history.
This call to battle is actually attributed (although this is not 100% certain) to Crazy Horse as he led his men into the Battle of the Little Big Horn way back in 1876.
As Spock would say - "Fascinating."
But seriously, that phrase gave me pause. I recently had a discussion with a very good friend about death. Specifically, how would I feel if I knew death was not only inevitable but going to happen in the very near future?
And then we added the premise - what if we had a choice about the timing?
What if we could literally decide to go or not go at that specific time? 
Would we? 
Would we bargain for more time and then what would we do with that newly gained time that we are not doing now?
How would it affect how we live now?
And the logical progression from that thought was - why do we need imminent death to make us take stock? 
Why don't we live every day as if it were our last?
Treasure every encounter.
Reach out to friends and family.
Get up early for that glorious sunrise.
Sip wine while we bask in a beautiful sunset.
Go on that long overdue vacation.
Read that book that we've been meaning to.
Love ourselves.
Love our neighbor.
The list is endless and different for each of us but you see my point.
The death of my soul mate has made me see things differently. I have seen Death and I know how life changes in an instant.
And that certainly put things in perspective for me.
But we are human. And humans are a forgetful species. When the crisis is gone, we tend to go back into our old ways.
We shouldn't.
Today may not be your day to die but you can treat it as if it were and take the lesson from it.
Cherish each moment of every day. 
It's a gift that won't come again. And it's part and parcel of this journey of hope and reclamation that we have started on.
Q'apla! - sorry, I slipped into Klingon. :) 
Namaste.