March

15th
THE PRESENT IS ALL WE POSSESS

“Were you to live three thousand years, or even a countless multiple of that, keep in mind that no
one ever loses a life other than the one they are living, and no one ever lives a life other than the
one they are losing. The longest and the shortest life, then, amount to the same, for the present
moment lasts the same for all and is all anyone possesses. No one can lose either the past or the
future, for how can someone be deprived of what’s not theirs?”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, M EDITATIONS, 2.14

T oday, notice how often you look for more. That is, wanting the past to be more than what it was
(different, better, still here, etc.) or wanting the future to unfold exactly as you expect (with hardly a
thought as to how that might affect other people).
When you do this, you’re neglecting the present moment. Talk about ungrateful! There’s a saying—
attributed to Bil Keane, the cartoonist—worth remembering: “Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future,
but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” This present is in our possession—but it has an
expiration date, a quickly approaching one. If you enjoy all of it, it will be enough. It can last a whole
lifetime.
 March 16th
THAT SACRED PART OF YOU

“Hold sacred your capacity for understanding. For in it is all, that our ruling principle won’t
allow anything to enter that is either inconsistent with nature or with the constitution of a logical
creature. It’s what demands due diligence, care for others, and obedience to God.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, M EDITATIONS, 3.9

T he fact that you can think, the fact that you can read this book, the fact that you are able to reason in
and out of situations—all of this is what gives you the ability to improve your circumstances and
become better. It’s important to appreciate this ability, because it’s a genuine ability. Not everyone is so
lucky.
Seriously—what you take for granted, others wouldn’t even think to dream of.
Take a little time today to remember that you’re blessed with the capacity to use logic and reason to
navigate situations and circumstances. This gives you unthinkable power to alter your circumstances and
the circumstances of others. And remember that with power comes responsibility.
 March 17th
THE BEAUTY OF CHOICE

“You are not your body and hair-style, but your capacity for choosing well. If your choices are
beautiful, so too will you be.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.1.39b–40a

I t’s that line in the movie Fight Club: “You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in
the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet.” Obviously our friend
Epictetus never saw that movie or read the book—but apparently the consumerism of the 1990s existed in
ancient Rome too.
It’s easy to confuse the image we present to the world for who we actually are, especially when media
messaging deliberately blurs that distinction.
You might look beautiful today, but if that was the result of vain obsession in the mirror this morning,
the Stoics would ask, are you actually beautiful? A body built from hard work is admirable. A body built
to impress gym rats is not.
That’s what the Stoics urge us to consider. Not how things appear, but what effort, activity, and
choices they are a result of.
 March 18th
IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT

“Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush
wasn’t from outside me but in my own assumptions.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, M EDITATIONS, 9.13

O n tough days we might say, “My work is overwhelming,” or “My boss is really frustrating.” If only
we could understand that this is impossible. Someone can’t frustrate you, work can’t overwhelm
you—these are external objects, and they have no access to your mind. Those emotions you feel, as real
as they are, come from the inside, not the outside.
The Stoics use the word hypolêpsis, which means “taking up”—of perceptions, thoughts, and
judgments by our mind. What we assume, what we willingly generate in our mind, that’s on us. We can’t
blame other people for making us feel stressed or frustrated any more than we can blame them for our
jealousy. The cause is within us. They’re just the target.
 March 19th
TIMELESS WISDOM

“For there are two rules to keep at the ready—that there is nothing good or bad outside my own
reasoned choice, and that we shouldn’t try to lead events but to follow them.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.10.18

I n the mid-twentieth century, there was an Indian Jesuit priest named Anthony de Mello. Born in
Bombay when it was still under British control, de Mello was an amalgam of many different cultures
and perspectives: East, West; he even trained as a psychotherapist. It’s interesting when one sees timeless
wisdom develop across schools, across epochs and ideas. Here is a quote from de Mello’s book, The
Way to Love, that sounds almost exactly like Epictetus:

“The cause of my irritation is not in this person but in me.”

Remember, each individual has a choice. You are always the one in control. The cause of irritation—
or our notion that something is bad—that comes from us, from our labels or our expectations. Just as
easily, we can change those labels; we can change our entitlement and decide to accept and love what’s
happening around us. And this wisdom has been repeated and independently discovered in every century
and every country since time began.