Dying Daily—Meditations for Mortals
The idea comes from Seneca: we die a little each day, and the awareness of that fact is the beginning. Dying Daily is a series of short meditations for mortals—on what to attend to, how to live deliberately, and how to remember to live.
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What Deserves Your Attention
Dying Daily—Meditations for Mortals
You can end a busy day having focused intensely on things you would never have chosen as the center of your life. The messages were answered. The small dispute got another hour. The person you meant to call has gone to bed.
Now the day’s accomplishments look different beside what they displaced.
This is a different problem from distraction. Sometimes we need to return to a task. Sometimes we need to ask why the task has taken so much of us.
The American philosopher William James connects attention with the formation of a life in The Principles of Psychology:
“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will.”
James describes the capacity to stay with what we are trying to do. He also admits how challenging that capacity is to teach. Anyone who has resolved to concentrate and drifted away a minute later knows the distance between valuing attention and directing it.
Even when we can direct it, we still have to choose its object. Close attention to a grievance makes us more accomplished at resenting someone. Close attention to another person’s side of things can reveal what our resentment missed.
Concentration does not supply its own standard of worth.
So we can bring a question to whatever keeps claiming our attention: what judgment about its importance have I accepted without noticing? Occasionally the answer is that it deserves the time. Repetitive, unremarkable work often sustains people who depend on us.
But there are quieter claims that urgency holds at bay. A good project can wait until there is not enough time left to give it what it needs. A friend won't always push. And a child might stop asking you to look.
That last one never comes back. Children stop asking as they grow up, and the years when “watch this” is common often end without notice.
Attention is limited. If you spend an hour on one worthwhile thing, you can’t spend it on another. And we can pay that toll without condemning every unfinished task. Tonight’s call that you didn’t take means you need to make a different choice tomorrow.
That doesn’t negate what you did today.
Daily practice
Name one person or responsibility that has been getting only your leftover attention. Before the day fills, give it a short, protected stretch of time, with the likeliest interruption out of reach. The louder things will still be there when you return.
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, remember to live.
J.W.
P.S. If you found today’s meditation helpful, please consider sharing it.