I am not the first, and this is not the first time the thought comes to mind.  Yesterday, early evening, the moon was a sliver of fingernail behind a cloud low in the darkening sky.  I hurried inside to get my camera.  I knew the moment would not last.  This morning on Fabyan Parkway looking east over the Fox River the sun was suspended, a fiery ball.  The New York Times is filled with articles evaluating, offering counter factual “what if” speculations about the events on September 11, 2001 at 9:59 AM.  Today is September 10th 2021.

For every one of us now living, soon enough the day will come when it will be a good day to die.  Everything that lives dies, — change, is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching.  Is the notion of an after-life, a stop gap to allow us to accept that just as there was a “before time” when we did not exist, so there will  be an “after time” when we will not be?  The question is unanswerable.  So, I do not know.  Resurrection occurs in myth and in fantasy, and not in this world. 

Is today a good day to die?

As good as any.  As tragic as any.  There are aspects of this life so exquisite, so inexpressibly singular that we’d like to believe they are hints of a idyllic afterlife.  May I suggest these moments, ephemeral, passing as they all are — are nothing less than eternity enfolded by time?  Moments of perfect happiness, sublime fulfillment to be experienced right here, right now…  Why wait!?  Paradise is wrapped in time.

If I am right, then what is to be done?  What actions are merited by the given circumstances?  These lyric lines from the Eagles song Last Resort, suggest what is to be done…

…there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here.

You call someplace paradise
Kiss it goodbye.

This is paradise, let’s not kiss it goodby.

These photos were captured over the past several days.  Sunflower and Rose of Sharon blossom.  A just picked fall apple, and the glow of a child’s innocence.  Fall harvest of Mad Hatter peppers and a profile of the white Buddha.  Maple leaves in shades of orange, a clue the season is changing.