Death is not cruel. It is consistent. A silent witness to every heartbeat, every failure, every kiss. We fear it because we cannot know it. We name it "the end" because we crave structure in a life that offers none.
Marcus Aurelius wrote, "You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think." Death gives urgency to life. It reminds us that every breath is borrowed.
But we try to forget. We hide it in hospitals, in cemeteries, in lowered voices. Yet it follows us, not with malice, but with certainty. We live as if we are immortal, arguing over trivialities while the sands in our hourglass slip away.
To accept death is not to lose hope it is to become free. Free from the illusion that we have forever. Free to love without delay. To speak what matters. To leave nothing unsaid.
Death watches. But it does not rush. It waits, knowing that eventually, we will all return to the silence from which we came.