Everytime you cut your hair. Every time you trim your nails. Every time you have to replace an old shirt or a worn out pair of running shoes, take note. Take note of what they symbolize. 

Because in those clippings, in that thinning hairline, in that worn out pair of jeans is a message: Time is passing. Life has gone by. 

Seneca reminds us that every second that has passed belongs to death. We are dying everyday, he says. We are dying one haircut, one t-shirt at a time. There are larger reminders too, ones that sneak up on us. Is your car getting up there in miles? Do you have to replace your air conditioner—the one you purchased new, with a 15 year warranty that just expired? Are the athletes you remember from draft day now up for the Hall of Fame?

Seneca tells the story of coming upon some old and dying trees at his country estate, only to suddenly realize…he had planted them himself. Life sneaks up on us this way…and in that way, so does death.

Which is why we practice memento mori. It’s not morbid. It’s helpful. What’s morbid is dying having wasted your brief time on this planet. We meditate on our mortality so we can use this incredible asset we have been given. So we take nothing for granted. So we are present. So we fully enjoy the moments we walk in those shoes, so we grow while our hair is growing, so we can appreciate even the mundane task of trimming our nails. 

Let this be a reminder!