I'm Italy Mone and this is the Slowdown.

I have always been interested in how we plan for the future.

I try to put a little money away now and again for a rainy day, as they say.

I try to imagine future scenarios to see if I'm prepared.

But if the last three years have taught me anything, it's that I cannot be prepared

for all the scenarios, life is full of terrific and terrifying surprises.

I never know what's coming next.

I can only be here at this moment and try to be somewhat flexible.

This may sound odd, but I sometimes imagine the world without me in it.

I visualize all the life around me going on without my physical body still moving through

its edges.

I don't think of it as morbid, but as acknowledging the deep and inevitable truth of life that

at some point death will come to all of us.

I am not a Buddhist, but I've always admired that a key tenet of Buddhism is acknowledging

our own death.

For me, personally, it can actually bring a sense of peace to remember that life will

go on without me.

It's a quick way to put things in perspective and recalibrate my own sense of urgency towards

things that are generally not so urgent.

That doesn't mean it's not scary sometimes, or just really, really sad.

Honestly, I'd like to live forever, or at least until 120.

I'd like to still be writing poems, sitting under an old tree I planted, petting my dog

...