During November, the city of Tucson – and my “urban hermitage” – are full of big orange marigolds to celebrate the Day of the Dead. The name of the flower in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, is zempasuchitl.

In our latest podcast, “Day of the Dead and the Marigold Path,” Dave Denny and I describe the Aztec origins of El Dia de los Muertos and how to build an ofrenda, an altar, to honor your ancestors and how they’ve helped you become the person you are today.

We encourage you to watch the film Coco with your friends and family this month and enjoy the lively music, dancing skeletons, colorful papel picado banners, and the exquisite marigold bridge. Then, in the spirit of the theme song, “Remember Me,” share memories of your loved ones who have died. (This movie is for adults as well as children.)

The podcast also focuses on my latest web post, “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying,” and the importance of living well now in the present moment so we can die without regrets. Dave and I remember family and friends who’ve taught us how to die well because they also lived well.

After we recorded this podcast, we learned that our dear friend, Norah Tunny Goodnight, is now in hospice care with a rare lung disease. She, too, is an inspiration as she comes to the end of her life. Meditating on her last golden autumn in Crestone, Colorado, she wrote: “I watch the leaves fall to the ground when it’s time just like this little body will when its cycle is finished.”

She beautifully echoes Dave’s comforting new poem, “Marigold and Leaf Mold,” where he compares autumn’s falling leaves and the way our lives “leave” us: “greening, falling, perfuming/ traversing the holy marigold-petaled path.”

These latest reflections remind us that “death is democratic” because “everyone ends up a skeleton.” In the meantime, then, let us all live to the hilt and “drink life like water, death like wine.”