What is Memento Mori?

Memento Mori: the idea to do a monthly memento came in the form of a birthday gift from a dear friend...the dear friend sent me a calendar that shows me how much life I have left between my 42nd and 80th birthday.

You might be inclined to think as my daughter did, that this is something to remind me that I’m going to die, a Death Calendar. She isn’t even wrong, considering Memento Mori does mean “an object serving as a warning or reminder of death.” Regardless of the accuracy here, I feel like there’s also nothing wrong with looking at it as a Life Calendar. Every square left to fill in is a week I can spend living my best life. Some weeks won’t be my best but I have a visible reminder that I have more life to come that can’t be all bad.

I’m going to show you exactly what it looks like but in the meantime, I’m going to tell you that I actually turned 41 this year, not 42. The point of the calendar is to fill in a square for each week you’ve lived. My dear friend mistakenly thought I turned 42 so I cannot use the calendar until November 2022. This is where the monthly mementos come in. I decided that I would honor her giving me this unique gift by recording a summary of each month I’ve been able to live through until I can use the calendar.

It also gives me a chance to honor this blog that I often ignore when I’m sitting in my head a little too long. Each month I’ll be reminding myself, and whoever chooses to read these posts, that we STILL have life left to live. The Life Calendar my friend gifted me might have already taken my 41st and 42nd year but these posts will give it back to me… one month at a time.

So take this journey with me or not but this is where I’ll dig in my heels. I have things to say. I have feelings to feel. I have shit to write. This is where some of it will be regurgitated for me to remember there’s life in all the words we think, speak and write.

I appreciate my dear friend for reminding me that I have so much life left to live. I owe it to myself to go live it… so here’s a reminder that sure, we’re gonna die eventually but that shouldn’t stop us from enjoying as much of our life as we can in the meantime.