XIII

At first, dying each day might seem a chore, a grim necessity for growth’s sake done. But there is a higher secret to explore:

not just to accept fate, but to love it spun. Amor fati-love your fate, Nietzsche implored. To say “yes” to the sun and to the shadow as one.

When you can adore each cycle the world poured, each death and rebirth as grace, not loss, then you transcend the trials untoward.

See the phoenix: does it fear the flame it emboss? No, it dives singing into fiery tomb, knowing joy awaits on the other side across.

The sage and the hero take on their doom with a fierce smile, embracing the fray. They love the spinning wheel, the crest and spume

of fortune’s waves, whether gentle or gray. So too must you cultivate this amorous eye toward the fate of dying and rising each day.

Instead of dreading night when self must die, you begin to savor that dark descent, like sinking into a warm bath to lie.

The moment of letting go becomes content, a relief and a return to holy source. You cherish the chance to shed and repent.

At dawn, you greet the new self with equal force of love-welcoming whatever form takes shape. Be it weak or strong, you do not feel remorse

for yesterday’s you; you do not scrape at the past’s door longing for what was. You say “yes” to the new with mouth agape,

eager to experience whatever cause and effect this fresh life shall unfold. In this affirmative stance, no fate is faux pas.

Every challenge is treasure, every wound gold, for all feeds the fire of metamorphosis. By loving the cycle, you break the mold

of suffering, turn pain into symbiosis. No longer a reluctant student of change, you become a dancer in life’s metamorphosis.

Amor fati means nothing is strange or unacceptable in your journey long; each death fuels the music to which you range.

So love your fate, love even the wrong turns and the stumbles that teach you to grow. Love the night’s emptiness and dawn’s birdsong.

For when your heart radiates this glow of yes-saying to all that is and must be, the gods of destiny nod and bestow

their secret: you are free when you agree. In loving your daily death, you are free.