The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.

Living and dying are not two separate projects. Each day you spend is also a day nearer the end, so a life and its close are one continuous piece of work. Mortality is not an intruder that turns up at the finish but part of the structure from the start.

None of this means anyone chooses how their life ends, or that a death says anything about the person who died. If you have lost someone, their last chapter does not sum them up. For yourself, it can be a question to carry lightly: if today is part of the same work, what would you like it to add?