Like A Butterfly - Emmy Arnold

'It dawns on me more and more how trivial and short our lifespan is. It is like smoke; like a butterfly—it passes so quickly, flying away. Nobody, no one can bring back wasted years. One wishes that one would have always lived with eternity in mind.' - Emmy Arnold

It seems to me the certainty of mortality, when we are not delusionally denying it, provokes two kinds of responses. One is despairing - life is short, I'm going to die anyway, so what can I achieve? The second is neurotic - life is short, so I must do as much as I can within the years given to me. Isn't there a third, more wholesome way of embracing death and living in the present with eternity in full view? What would that look like? - YY