Watts often spoke about death not as an enemy to be feared but as a natural part of life’s rhythm, much the way a Zen garden makes space for fallen leaves rather than treating them as disorder. Buddhism names this principle anicca — impermanence — the recognition that all things, including ourselves, are temporary, changing, and ultimately passing.
This might sound bleak at first, but contemplative traditions and modern psychology arrive at a similar, more hopeful conclusion from different directions: awareness of impermanence, when held gently rather than avoided, tends to reduce existential anxiety rather than increase it. Studies on gratitude and mortality awareness suggest that people who periodically reflect on life’s finitude often report greater appreciation for ordinary moments — a sunset, a conversation, a quiet morning. The leaf that falls was never meant to stay forever, and that is exactly what makes its season on the branch worth noticing.
