Lay your life down. Your heartbeats cannot be hoarded. Your reservoir of breaths is draining away. You have hands, blister them while you can. You have bones, make them strain-they can carry nothing in the grave. You have lungs, let them spill with laughter. With an average life expectancy of 78.2 years in the US (subtracting eight hours a day for sleep), I have around 250,00 conscious hours remaining to me in which I could be smiling or scowling, rejoicing in my life, in this race, in this story, or moaning and complaining about my troubles. I can be giving my fingers, my back, my mind, my words, my breaths, to my wife and my children and my neighbors, or I can grasp after the vapor and the vanity for myself, dragging my feet, afraid to die and therefore afraid to live. And, like Adam, I will still die in the end.

About This Quote

About N.D. Wilson, Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent

N.D. Wilson, Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent.

Themes

  • Death — Contemplations on mortality, loss, and the legacy we leave
  • Experience — Learning through living, doing, and facing the world
  • Life — Reflections on the meaning, challenges, and beauty of life
  • Truth — Meditations on honesty, authenticity, and the search for truth
  • Work — The value of effort, discipline, and meaningful labour

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