Memento Mori

Memento Mori

I was driving down the highway.
Perfectly content.
Captivated by my idealized ideations.

On the right, woods.
On the left, a cement median.
It was rush hour.
Traffic was moving swiftly.
The rat race was on and I was blissfully bewitched.

In the distance, I could see something moving along the median wall.
I couldn’t quite make out what it was.
Until, I could.

A mother duck with her ducklings.
She looked frantic.
They were scurrying east looking for a way past this insurmountable wall.
Instantly, I was awash in anxiety.
The flurry of solutions that flew through my head all ended similarly.

To stop in the middle of the highway would ensure nothing.
They would no more likely flee to me than a fox.

I slowed,
But with all the cars,
I was past them in a flash.
I strained to see them in my mirror.
But, they disappeared into the distance in mere moments.

I desperately looked for a break in the wall where they could pass.
There was nothing for a mile.
With those little legs…

I reflected on my beautiful two year old.
How helpless,
And careless.
How sincere and bright.
And yet, how fragile.
I saw in those ducklings, so much.

Sitting with this sort of thing is distressing.
It’s the witnessing.
The utter futility.

I wanted to reach out and scoop them up.
I wanted to save them.
I wanted to save them all.

Yet, there it is.
It’s the re-remembering.
Memento Mori ~ Remember death.

A meditation on mortality.
Through the lens of death,
What really matters to you?