💀 Dying Every Day
The Dying Every Day series delivers guided meditations on the art of living. Each meditation provides a quote, a selected passage (from an original Stoic text), and a reflection prompt to consider. These meditations are designed to help you (and me) reflect on what it means to live a good life.
The Ceaseless Flow of Life
“Nothing, Lucilius, is ours except time. Nature entrusted us with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be!”
— Seneca, On Saving Time
Selected Passage
In this week’s meditation, we explore our relationship with time through a selected passage from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations.
Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone—those that are now and those to come. Existence flows past us like a river: the ‘what’ is in constant flux, and the ‘why’ has a thousand variations. Nothing is stable, not even what’s right here. The infinity of past and future gapes before us—a chasm whose depths we cannot see. So it would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress. Or any indignation, either. As if the things that irritate us lasted.
Remember: Matter. How tiny your share of it. Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate. How small a role you play in it.
+Adapted from Meditations, 5.23-24
Reflection Exercise
Consider reflecting on how you think about and value time. Are you consistently aware of the ceaseless flow of life? Do you know the value (and precious nature) of each moment? The notion of impermanence (or nothing lasts) is stressed across philosophical and spiritual traditions. It is generally viewed as a foundational perspective or universal truth.
Journaling Prompt
Seneca asked Lucilius, “What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily?” What does it actually mean to value the worth of a day?
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
P.S. New here? Catch up on previous volumes in the archive!