Given that I recently got a tattoo of the phrase ‘amor fati’ (which means to love one’s fate), I wanted to write a short reflection on what the term continues to mean for me.
There is no doubt that we continue to live in uncertain times. No one quite knows where we are going and what the future holds. We exist in a liminal space of unknowing; a time of transition between worlds.
It is easy to cling onto the promises of ideologies which proclaim they have the ‘right answers’ to move forward. They relieve our anxieties and give us a map to make sense of the world. However, I’ve come to realize that all these assurances are just a façade. The efforts of the modern world to influence and control the will of nature still remain futile at best.
Nothing is ever set in stone.
Nothing is ever guaranteed.
The external world is and will always remain in a state of change and constant flux. ‘Amor fati’ is a reminder to cultivate inner strength and fortitude. We may not know what the future holds, but if we develop the virtues, character and resilience to overcome whatever arises, we will be alright. As the Stoics constantly remind us, we can not control out events but rather we can influence how we interpret them.
So, in the spirit of ‘amor fati’, let me learn to love everything which happens in my life – the good, the bad and the great unknown. This is what I believe to be is the spiritual path. It requires one to be fully present, and embrace the full spectrum of our human existence.
To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.
Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
Image Source: Pexels Free Photos
A Life of Virtue: Philosophy as a Way of Life 
When you make the inside the outside and the outside becomes the inside you become Fate herself.
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Well said:)!
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Love this one! Everything is relatable. Thank you for sharing!
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Oh Andrew I love this one! You are gifted and write how you see things. I hope that everything you write are a direct existance to what you experience which in turn, makes you a better writer because all comes directly from you heart
Bravo!
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Thankyou:)
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I’m really pleased by the surge of interest in Stoicism. Looking forward to more posts on this.
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thanks, would you call yourself a stoic?
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Beautiful quote.
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Reblogged this on I can't believe it! and commented:
This post by Andrew addresses one of the major themes of my blog: “There is no doubt that we continue to live in uncertain times. No one quite knows where we are going and what the future holds. We exist in a liminal space of unknowing; a time of transition between worlds.”
The transition is from the world we have known since the Second World War, now running into environmental buffers and sheer physical limits, into a new world, a new way of thinking, a New Renaissance. So thank you, Andrew, we all will need Amor Fati.
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