“In Andalusia clothes are white
That folks in mourning wear;
The custom’s right…I bear its truth
In every greying hair
That grieves for my lost youth.”
Why do we mourn when someone dies? Or why should anyone grieve over lost youth? I think it might have to do with the sense of loss that comes with these.
I’m currently not the most knowledgeable on this topic, but I think the most significant loss is probably unfulfilled potential and people not fully living out their purpose. Know this, everyone is born with potential, and everyone is born with a purpose. Sadly though, as the great Myles Munroe often said, most people die without maximizing their potential, making the graveyard the wealthiest place in the world due to the abundance of un-mined potential that lies there.
I refuse to let today and any other day waste away because my life is a summation of every single day I live, and nobody ever gets a second chance to live a day. Maximizing potential doesn’t happen in one day, so I have to make every day count. I don’t want people to mourn when I die; I also don’t want to regret my youth. I want to live my life so well that in the end, nobody feels like anything was lost or left unexplored.
So I write here, my verse:
“I resolve today
To live in such a way
That I will celebrate
On my last day!
And be celebrated
When I pass away!”
From the poem “Mourning in Andalusia” by Al-Husri, A Moor of Spain. Translated by Harold Morland and quoted from “Poetry” (1972) Edited by Ebun Clark and Deborah Manley.