Death Is Not Evil
“If the elements themselves suffer nothing by their perpetual conversion of one into another—that dissolution, and alteration, which is so common unto all—why should it be feared by any? Is this not according to nature? But nothing that is according to nature can be evil.”
—Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
Look around you—every element in nature seamlessly transitions from one state to another. Leaves fall and decompose, nourishing the soil they land in. Water flows, evaporates, forms clouds, and descends again as rain.
If nature's constant dance of transformation is neither good nor bad but simply a fact of life, why do we resist change so fiercely? Marcus challenges us by asking why should we fear this natural process; if nature's cyclical rhythms are not feared, why should our own transformations be any different?
Even difficulties dissolve and reshape into new opportunities. What change might you be resisting that is, in reality, as natural as the seasons?
Our lives, like nature, are in perpetual flux. Changes at work, shifts in relationships, the ebb and flow of health—all these alterations are part of the human experience. To fear change is like fearing the sunset; it's a waste of energy and emotion on an inevitable part of our world.
Let's look at the transformations in our lives as parts of nature's own course. Nothing in line with nature can be inherently evil, so why do we label our life changes as such?
When you face change today, ask yourself: Am I seeing this through the lens of my fears, or am I recognizing it as a natural, neutral shift in the great pattern of life?