Dear Fellow Travelers,
Happy New Year! I hope everyone is feeling wise and well. Here is the latest Monday Muse with a selected reading (from Aristotle), a perennial reminder, a poem, and a recommendation to help you start the New Year!
📿 Aristotle — On First Principles
This week’s morning meditation is courtesy of The Wisdom School podcast (Apple or Spotify). Today’s meditation is a short selected reading from the writings of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
📌 Perennial Reminder(s)
We must live out our lives, to whatever extent we can, in clear-eyed acknowledgment of our limitations, in the undeluded mode of existence that Heidegger calls “Being-towards-death,” aware that this is it, that life is not a dress rehearsal, that every choice requires myriad sacrifices, and that time is always already running out—indeed, that it may run out today, tomorrow, or next month. And so it’s not merely a matter of spending each day “as if” it were your last, as the cliché has it. The point is that it always actually might be. I can’t entirely depend upon a single moment of the future. […]
Source: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (Listen to my conversation with Burkeman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.)
💡 Perennial Question(s)
What is progress?
Meanwhile, as I owe you the daily dole, I will tell you what pleased me today in the writings of Hecaton:
‘Do you ask what progress I have made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.’
Valuable progress indeed: he will never be alone. Believe me, such a person will be a friend to everyone. Farewell. […]
Source: Seneca’s letter to Lucilius, known today as Intimacy within friendship.
📜 Perennial Poem(s)
This week’s poem is a short one from the American poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807—1892).
The Saddest Words
....Of all sad words of toungue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"🔥 Recommendation(s)
This week’s recommendation is our upcoming course, Wisdom is the Way: The Timeless Art of Leading a Life. The course is free for Perennial Meditations members, and will spend the next 90 days exploring timeless perspectives, principles, and practices for modern living.
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Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
P.S. As always, if you’re interested in becoming a member but cannot afford it, feel free to request a complimentary membership or use this discount link.
I would like to Faithfully request Daily Meditation on the Art of Living. Which is life in its essence as manuscript. May I