Remembering you will die sounds grim, but the Stoics used it to wake up, not to despair. Seneca said we don't have a short life, we just waste much of it. When you hold the truth that your time is limited, small grudges shrink and trivial worries lose their grip. You stop saving your good self for some later day. You call the person. You say the kind thing. You let the petty argument go because it isn't worth a piece of your one life. This isn't morbid. It's clarifying. Knowing the candle burns is exactly what makes the light precious.

Inspired by the old idea of memento mori. Written by Ugo Charles.