I was in the middle of my devotion this morning (one of my morning routines) and as I was meditating, I was thankful for my position in space-time, my lacks, my wants, my families and friends, my life. Then a simple phrase just popped into my mind, right in the middle of my appreciation:
MEMENTO MORI
It was so profound and resonant that I had to pause and listen clearly. It came again: Memento Mori.
Back in the Roman empire, when generals came back from wars they had won, people gathered to welcome them, to congratulate and hail them, singing their praises. As this went on, the generals would probably be nodding and smiling, but right behind them, a servant would whisper into their ears amidst the hailing, “Memento Mori.”
This is Latin for Remember Death. Remember you are but a man and you will die. This is supposed to remind them of their mortality and help them not to forget their place, they are just humans, they will die too, they shouldn’t allow their ego to be overinflated. Remember you must die.
That was what my mind screamed at me this morning. So I thought about death.
This is April, the fourth month of the year, and already four people I know have died. Past years, no one very close to me had died in a way that I had to think about it or that it weighed on me. But this year, first a woman that was like a mother died, my aunt died, the husband of an acquaintance died, and again a distant uncle died. And you know what? They all died of cancer.
So when I tried to remember death and my own mortality, they all came to my mind.
Okay this is not supposed to be morbid but rather, it is supposed to change something in you, like it did in me.
The Romans were reminded of death so they can remain humble. But we have to remember death too, everyday in fact, not to put fear in us or to limit our lives, but rather, to help us live a life free of fear.
Think about this: if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do differently today, right now?
I have read of cases where people who have terminal cancer have changed the way they lived their lives. The realisation of imminent death, once it has been accepted, has been known to change humans mentality and approach towards life. It has a way of pulling the blindfolds off the irrelevant things in our lives that have been disguising as important and in need of attention. It changes our focus onto things that truly matter.
That is what death is supposed to do. We don’t have to wait for a near-death experience or a terminal disease for us to change the way we live.
We are to remember death every day, because we don’t have forever. What you want to do, that thing that you’ve always been putting off, you might not have tomorrow to do it. Why not get to it now? You have been putting off being kind and friendly and caring for so long, until a more convenient time, well, what if you never have the opportunity to get to it?
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today, or better yet, never put off till tomorrow what you’d like to do before you die, because tomorrow you might die.
Memento Mori, before today has been something I have been living by. I quit my job in January because I couldn’t afford spending another moment of my life doing something I find no fulfilment doing. It sounded crazy then, and sometimes I still wonder, but the truth is I have no regrets. The thought of death has been the reason why I decided to live and not just pass through life.
It is why I wrote this, to remind you that you will die. Don’t die without living. Don’t die with regrets. Don’t wait until you are forced to look back at all those things you could have done to make your life better, but you were too scared to do.
Some might live to be a hundred years, but wouldn’t have lived as long as someone who lived for just 40 years, the difference is the quality of life lived.
Remember, you will die.
Seneca said in one of his letters that the years we have lived are in the hands of death already. He further said that, we don’t just die once, dying is a gradual process, we slowly approach death with every day we live. The death we all know is just the end of the process of dying, so really there is nothing to fear about death.
The sad truth however is, some never get to live, before their final death. That shouldn’t be us. Let every moment count for something worthwhile because you are only human, we approach death everyday.
Lee Ann Womack in her song, I Hope You Dance, said “living might mean taking chances, but they are worth taking.” So take a chance of life today, live before you wake up tomorrow and wonder where the years have gone.
