You read badly written blogs, eat mediocre meals, get no exercise, be loved by no one, and then you die.

This week, I am intending to curate “A list of things we need to do (or not do) before we die”.

I was taught a prayer by catholic-school-bred people and it goes a little something like this:

I lay me down to sleep
oh god,
i pray the lord my soul
to keep,
and if i die before i wake,
i pray
the lord,
my soul to take.

This is my before i meet my maker prayer, and i think it says it wisely,
even wistfully - on how things should be approached on the daily : a certain thankfulness and unguarded-ness that commences a realisation of how things could be entered into - not just stewed in the mind but more importantly, in the spirit of being as a whole (albeit, the romantic notion of you, as you are now rather than as you will become later when i’m done with you) - and not just after an untoward incident, an after-thought, or a very near-death experience. I figured, if we choose well for micro-choices like what you eat, how you wash your clothes, how you sleep, instead of just the major choices - who you marry for life (though that one’s a real doozy) - then i figure, you might actually gear towards a life-long pride of owning, or authoring your real self.

But, that’s just me.

More about this : my weighing in on what are my experience of pursuing the cultural holy (g)rails of life before you die, on Finding The Solid Exhibit A, when i’ve regained my composure after this, a real near-death health mishap, on the Bank Holiday Monday.