💀 Dying Every Day
The Dying Every Day series delivers guided Stoic meditations on the art of living. Each meditation provides a quote, a selected passage, and a journaling prompt to consider. These meditations are designed to help us reflect on what it means to live a ‘good’ life.
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The Time is Now
“Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you didn’t use them. At some point, you have to recognize what world it is that you belong to, what power rules it, and from what source you spring; there is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.4
Selected Passage
In this week’s Dying Every Day meditation, we’re exploring why the time is always now — through a selected passage from Epictetus.
Whatever things are proposed to you (for the conduct of life), abide by them as if they were laws, as if you would be guilty of impiety if you transgressed any of them. And whatever anyone shall say about you, do not attend to it, for this is no affair of yours. …
Have you accepted the rules, which were your duty, and agreed to them? What teacher then do you still expect that you defer to him the correction of yourself?
You are no longer a youth but already a fully mature adult. If so, you are negligent and are continually making procrastination after procrastination, and intention after intention, and fixing day after day, after which you will attend to yourself, you will not know that you are not making improvements. Still, you will continue uninstructed both while you live and till you die.
Immediately, think it is right to live as someone making progress. …
If anything difficult, pleasant, glorious, or inglorious be presented to you, remember that now is the contest, now are the Olympic games, and they cannot be deferred; and that it depends on one defeat and one giving way that progress is either lost or maintained. In this way, Socrates became perfect, in all things improving himself, attending to nothing except reason. But you, though you are not yet a Socrates, ought to live as one who wishes to be a Socrates.
+ Adapted from The Enchiridion
Reflection Exercise
In Philosophy as a Way of Life, the French philosopher and classicist Pierre Hadot explained that despite their profound differences, the Epicureans and Stoics privileged the present to the detriment of the past and especially the future. They put forward the axiom: “Happiness can only be found in the present,” the good life must be found immediately, here and now.
It’s important to remember that practical wisdom involves learning to be content with the present while simultaneously knowing how to utilize it. It’s knowing what matters and what doesn’t, recognizing the actual value of time, and seizing life’s precious and impermanent moments.
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Journaling Prompt
Consider reflecting on what it means to be committed to living in the present moment. You might ask yourself, “What have I been putting off?” or “What is distracting me from what truly matters?”
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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. New here? Catch up on previous volumes in the archive!
The Time is Now