Gone with the wind. Marcus Aurelius 5.29

Marcus here addresses himself on the subject of life and death. He wants to live, but life for him is a process of moving on, a journey that requires us always to be leaving things behind. Among these things, for Marcus, is the personal self, the self that remains aware of its own being apart from the being of the universe that makes it (and then blows it away like dust, in the cosmic wind). Rather than consider himself something solid and permanent, he views it as ephemeral, something to relinquish gratefully when the time for release arrives. He wants death to find him happy and at peace, doing the work that nature has given to his animal species. Contrast this with Unamuno's feelings.

Ὡς ἐξελθὼν ζῆν διανοῇ, οὕτως ἐνταῦθα ζῆν ἔξεστιν· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἐπιτρέπωσι, τότε καὶ τοῦ ζῆν ἔξιθι, οὕτως μέντοι ὡς μηδὲν κακὸν πάσχων. καπνὸς καὶ ἀπέρχομαι· τί αὐτὸ πρᾶγμα δοκεῖς; μέχρι δέ με τοιοῦτον οὐδὲν ἐξάγει, μένω ἐλεύθερος καὶ οὐδείς με κωλύσει ποιεῖν ἃ θέλω· θέλω δὲ ἃ κατὰ φύσιν τοῦ λογικοῦ καὶ κοινωνικοῦ ζῴου.

You intend to live your life as one departing from it, and this path is definitely open to you: if circumstances deny it, then you must leave them and your life behind, suffering death without any illusion that would make it evil for you. Already I am passing away like smoke: why make a big deal of this? So far, nothing forces me on: I remain free, and nobody keeps me from doing what I please, which is to pursue what nature prescribes for animals capable of reason and fellowship.