memento mori

Over the summer, I met with Kristen, my slam poetry co-coach and we mapped out our year. We talked about what we’d love to have our students write about. Both of us brought up mortality. We’re a little morbid like that, asking high school students to write about the end of life.

Kristen showed me her tattoo, said it is her memento mori. I didn’t know what that meant, so she told me it’s a reminder that death will come. In Latin in translates to ‘remember that you must die.’

The writer in me loved that. That this life of mine will end reminds me of what I want to do while I’m alive. On Sunday, I went to the museum with my boys. In the gift shop, they picked out those little lizards full of sand. I picked out this skull. My own memento mori. I placed it on my desk, next to my journals. A reminder of all I have left to write, a reminder to get busy doing it.

I will chase my soulfire, write into it.