Day 6: Already Forgotten.
7 Days of Joyful Stoic Death Writing. It's Demystifying Death Week this 5-11 May.
Welcome to ‘7 Days of Joyful Stoic Death Writing’ for Scotland’s Demystifying Death Week, 5-11 May 2025. Each day this week, I’m contemplating and writing in response to meditations on death drawn from ancient Stoic philosophy. I’ll share a daily meditation, offer an invitation for reflection, and invite you to join the conversation in the comments.
Dear You —
ἤδη λήθῃ παραδέδονται
already forgotten
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.6
All those once remembered are now forgotten and those who remembered them are gone too.
When my time is up, who will remember me? How will I be remembered?What will I be remembered for?
I don’t know.
Why is legacy important for me? I think it’s linked to my need to curate an identity that gives meaning, purpose. A story about a life well lived. A story about me, as a person, who had value, who was worth something.
My legacy is a story, a gift, offered after my death, yet I build and compose my legacy each day.
I guess this is the invitation again today. To attend to the composition of my legacy in this day; essentially to live it today.
We’d love for our legacy to live on beyond the grave. But what if we choose to simply live before the grave?
How does this shift in focus change things for us? That’s the invitation for today.
Invitations
If you have 5 minutes
Read the above meditation out loud.
Write down (or memorise) a single keyword or phrase to capture this meditation.
Two or three times during the day, repeat this keyword or phrase.
If you have 10 minutes
The above, plus ‘copywork’; your meditative writing practice: In your journal, in lovely, slow, intentional writing, copy out the meditation, word for word.
Try recalling this meditation throughout the day.
If you have 30-60 minutes
The above, plus ‘free write’: Explore further, allow your pen to stay moving on the page. Set a timer for 3 or 5 or 8 minutes. What comes up for you?
Write about being forgotten. How does this feel?
How can you rethink your legacy knowing that you have no control over how or whether you will be remembered?
When the timer goes off, take a break. Then, return and reconsider your word choices and imagery, and shape into a form that is pleasing to you.
An alternative to the free write is to:
Summarise the meditation into bullet points.
Reformulate (reexpress/rewrite) the meditation using your own words and voice (but don't change the teaching).
And, how about a poetic prompt?
Write a poem about your legacy that you might share with loved ones.
At the end of your writing session, close your journal. Take a deep breath, stretch, put some music on, walk, dance, do something comforting.
Here’s some music to inspire you. This playlist was co-created by participants in a previous version of Joyful Death Writing. Enjoy!
🪦 Finally, remember: Two or three times during the day, just as you are about to enjoy something or someone you love, say this to yourself: "Tomorrow, you will die."
And you’re done!
We’ll meet again tomorrow (fate permitting). 💙
Meet me in the comments
Come on into the comments section and share your writing or anything else that came up for you. I don’t think we can share images in the comments, but if you’d like to share pages from your journal, maybe share as a Substack note and tag me there and/or link in the comments. Remember, the 7 Days are open to all subscribers, so take care with what you are sharing. I encourage you to read and respond to others too. I’ll see you there.
Memento mori,
Today's meditation touches a nerve that used to be sore earlier in my life, but not so much anymore. I used to fixate on making my mark in the world, on not being forgotten. This was when I harboured dreams of an academic career: I would grab at opportunities, making connections, chasing my own tail. I lived in the mode of 'present struggle, future reward.'
But the alarm of my ailing body finally rang out so loud that it could not be ignored anymore, and brought me willy-nilly to the present. I'm not quite there yet, but over the last five years I have moved on from this. I know that many people will remember me for a time: my compatriots form Kasos; my Greek family and other friends; my Iranian family, old students and friends; my other friends and fellow writers in the UK; and of course my won immediate family. I hope they will remember me as a deeply flawed human who tried to make the best with what she had and who tried to make up for her mistakes near the end of her life.
My legacy - I hope - will be the difference I (may) have made on lives, even if it has been one kind word, or the sharing of an idea that may have helped. I go back to what I wrote yesterday: doing good in the NOW, at every moment.
Thank you again, dear Kathryn, for prompting these grounding reflections.
How wonderful, thanks KK! 😊
Contemplating on today's meditation, I can’t help but think about how those once remembered are now forgotten, and those who remembered them are gone too. My first thought was...how tragic! How sad! That a human life can mean so little, neither in life nor in death. But here I am, remembering those who came before me, trying to make sense of who I am today, in this moment.
I prefer to remember...knowing that The Past is Myself, as Christabel Bielenberg once said in her memoir: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1255840.The_Past_Is_Myself.
Life is a gift... to be cherished. And death is the transformation of all we've carried...memories, pain, and patterns. To live deeply is an act of courage ... of the heart ... to say that I remember, and that it feels impossible to forget how pain, but also kindness, can shape us and turn into patterns. Some are beautiful, while others need breaking.
Even if I died tomorrow without breaking this cycle of forgetting and repeating, or even having to do another round again, what a horror that would be. I'd prefer to remember today, and with every new beginning, to appreciate that I am alive and not forget those who came before me, in order not to repeat the same old patterns.
Have a lovely sunny day! 🌞