The Garden

What is mulch but a reminder
of who we’ll become—
decaying life embalmed
in brown dye, the rest
of the world looking on.
Something once beautiful
is now dead, petrified
for appearance and vanity.

They can’t even let trees die
without an assembly line.

Still, in the midst of sadistic
beautification is something
to hope in, for dyed and dead
trees transform the landscape
so perennials can sing louder,
maybe even attract more bees.
What is now dead makes
the living world more vivid.

We did not plant the garden
but we can help it grow.

Turn

I’m excited for everything in my life. Except death.

I’m excited for everything in my life. Accept death.

Jesus’ dad died

Not God the Father, but Saint Joseph. He’s not mentioned in the scriptures after Jesus was a kid, so sometime before Jesus turned 30 Joseph passed away.

Though the Son of God probably had a more comprehensive grasp of what happened after death, his dad still died. It was hard for him, as it’s hard for all of us when we lose somebody. But losing someone so central to your life while you’re so young…

Jesus cries with you. That’s kind of the whole point—a God who experiences what we do and strengthens us when we’re weak. Jesus died for our sins so we wouldn’t have to, but that doesn’t mean people don’t still die. They do.

Christ is with us in the mourning after a fall and the morning as we arise. He is a God who knows us and loves us because of it.

Sometimes people die

And you don’t feel like writing a blog post. You just want to remind everybody to be grateful for every moment. You never know when your friends will die.

A Question about Death (featured on Aubrey Marcus Podcast with Alex Banayan)

A few months ago, Alex Banayan, author of the New York Times’ Best Seller The Third Door, tweeted that him and Aubrey Marcus were gonna do Q&A during their podcast together. Naturally, I was thinking about death a lot that day, so I tweeted them the following question:

Aubrey, you’ve talked a lot about “knowing” what the other side is like because you’ve been there on medicine journeys. This seems to have almost obliterated your fear of death. But fearing death and overcoming that fear seem to be a deep, unifying part of the human experience…

Many believe that having an understanding—and even a fear—of death can ignite a sense of urgency, leading you to live a more fulfilling life. To what extent is fearing death a good thing and and when does it get in the way? Thanks for all you do

@lemmanucci

Well, Alex and Aubrey talked about my question. They introduced me, said my name, and even hyped me up, saying “You know him. You love him. Give it up for Aaron Lemma!” It brought so much joy to my being.

It was a heavy question and it took a while to unpack it—about 50 minutes. This was the longest Aubrey Marcus Podcast to date, and my question helped to fuel that. I am so grateful to Aubrey and Alex for answering my question with such deep insight and wisdom, all while remaining students of this confusing game called life.

This experience reminded me to be curious and ask my questions without fear of judgement or embarrassment. I really gained a lot from this discussion about death and I can’t even imagine how many thousands or millions of others did too. All because I tweeted my genuine curiosity.

Here’s the link to the YooTube video of the podcast: AMP #229. Check out 50:40 and 1:40:20 for my name drop. This window encompasses the entire discussion about death. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you prefer to listen, check out Aubrey Marcus Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.