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Memento Mori: The Death of Dreams & Transformation
This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about transformation – how we unlock our full potential and bravely step into the fullness of who we are.
The bright side of transformation often makes us think of butterflies – the becoming, the vivid growth, the ability to fly to new heights with a new perspective. But the truth is that in order for us to become, we must first die. Die to ego, die to false identities, and die to what was so that what can be is possible.
The stoics gifted us the phrase: memento mori - in Latin meaning: you must die. One of my favorite writers and podcasters, Ryan Holiday, writes in his publication, The Daily Stoic: "Meditating on your mortality is only depressing if you miss the point. It is in fact a tool to create priority and meaning. It’s a tool that generations have used to create real perspective and urgency. To treat our time as a gift and not waste it on the trivial and vain. Death doesn’t make life pointless but rather purposeful. And fortunately, we don’t have to nearly die to tap into this. A simple reminder can bring us closer to living the life we want."
Perhaps one of the most painful deaths in our lives is the death of a dream. Whenever we had imagined how the story would play out for us, we suddenly found ourselves needing to surrender that a good dream for the great is possible, if we will only lay the prior expectation down.
When walking through one of those seasons in 2017, a friend gave me a book of liturgies called Every Moment Holy by Douglas Kaine McKelvey and dog eared the page of this liturgy for The Death of a Dream. I honestly didn’t even have language for what I was feeling at that time, but these words became one only ones that expressed my soul to myself.
Whatever you’re walking through. If you’ve ever had a moment where you knew it was time to lay something down, to surrender it, I hope this encourages you. And if you’re yearning for transformation in your life, remember that the way toward rebirth is necessarily through death. And that proximity to death gives us perspective, meaning, and true life.
May these words be what your soul needs today.
. . . .
For access to the full essay with some additional thoughts and tools, join my Substack.
. . . .
Grab your daily reminder of truth over at the Belief Statements collection.
. . . .
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abbyskeans/
Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigailskeans/
Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@abbyskeans
Drop me a note on my website: https://www.abbyskeans.com/
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By Abby SkeansThis week, I’ve been thinking a lot about transformation – how we unlock our full potential and bravely step into the fullness of who we are.
The bright side of transformation often makes us think of butterflies – the becoming, the vivid growth, the ability to fly to new heights with a new perspective. But the truth is that in order for us to become, we must first die. Die to ego, die to false identities, and die to what was so that what can be is possible.
The stoics gifted us the phrase: memento mori - in Latin meaning: you must die. One of my favorite writers and podcasters, Ryan Holiday, writes in his publication, The Daily Stoic: "Meditating on your mortality is only depressing if you miss the point. It is in fact a tool to create priority and meaning. It’s a tool that generations have used to create real perspective and urgency. To treat our time as a gift and not waste it on the trivial and vain. Death doesn’t make life pointless but rather purposeful. And fortunately, we don’t have to nearly die to tap into this. A simple reminder can bring us closer to living the life we want."
Perhaps one of the most painful deaths in our lives is the death of a dream. Whenever we had imagined how the story would play out for us, we suddenly found ourselves needing to surrender that a good dream for the great is possible, if we will only lay the prior expectation down.
When walking through one of those seasons in 2017, a friend gave me a book of liturgies called Every Moment Holy by Douglas Kaine McKelvey and dog eared the page of this liturgy for The Death of a Dream. I honestly didn’t even have language for what I was feeling at that time, but these words became one only ones that expressed my soul to myself.
Whatever you’re walking through. If you’ve ever had a moment where you knew it was time to lay something down, to surrender it, I hope this encourages you. And if you’re yearning for transformation in your life, remember that the way toward rebirth is necessarily through death. And that proximity to death gives us perspective, meaning, and true life.
May these words be what your soul needs today.
. . . .
For access to the full essay with some additional thoughts and tools, join my Substack.
. . . .
Grab your daily reminder of truth over at the Belief Statements collection.
. . . .
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abbyskeans/
Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigailskeans/
Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@abbyskeans
Drop me a note on my website: https://www.abbyskeans.com/