Reflection Title: The Present is All We Possess!
Book – The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Book Description:
The Daily Stoic offers a daily devotional of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from Emperor Marcus Aurelius, playwright Seneca, and slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year, you'll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms. By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come), you'll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.
Reflection:
Yesterday was 3/15/2023, Emilia’s 3rd Birthday.
We spent the day like we always do, spending as much time as we can together while doing the things we love, bring us joy, and bring our values to life through our actions.
One of those activities we’ve done every single morning since she was born is to read a daily devotional, write out our thoughts, and discuss together in our journal. I was blessed to be able to do this physically next to her when she was alive, but we’ve managed to continue this practice each and every day since she passed away to maintain that connection. It is my absolute favorite time of the day every morning. I honestly can’t imagine our lives without it at this point and it is something I have no intentions of every stopping if I can help it.
For the first year of Emilia’s life, we used the book Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer as our thought sparker of choice to start our conversation. We were handed this book by friends of my wife on Emilia’s third day in this world and we went through it day by day until we hit her 1st birthday on 3/15/2021. From there, we decided to listen to a new voice from Bob Goff and his Live in Grace, Walk in Love 365-day journey to spark our morning conversations in her second year of life. This book was given to us by my wife as a gift because she knew how much we loved Bob Goff. It was a very thoughtful present and we loved our year with Bob. Our time with Live in Grace, Walk in Love ended on 3/15/2022 and it was time for our next selection. Our burgeoning curiosity to learn more about Stoicism led us to try The Daily Stoic as our newest voice to invite into our conversations and help up to spark a dialogue each morning. We officially wrapped up our time together yesterday with Emilia’s 3rd Birthday on 3/15/2023.
So, what did we learn from our year with Ryan and Stephen reflections from famous Stoic philosophers…who cares!!! The point wasn’t to explore some new philosophy, try to become more rational, control our emotions, etc. The point of this daily exercise is to spend time with my daughter. I’ll talk about anything and everything with her for as long as this world allows us to maintain that connection.
I loved this quote from the Daily Stoic’s 3/15 Reflection that was titled The Present is All We Possess. “There’s a saying – attributed to Bill 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.”
Every day with Emilia since her birth has been a gift, whether she has been physically with me or not.
This is what Living for 2 is all about, understanding that all we have is today and doing our best to make the most of each day with the people we love and doing the things we love to do. I cherish every moment I get a chance to connect with my daughter each day and I’ll never take that for granted. No matter what happens in the future, I know that I will have loved every minute of each day that led up to it.
Happy 3rd Birthday Sweetheart…we love you!
Question: Are you valuing today for the gift that it is?
Links:
What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction
YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon
YOML Bookstore - The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
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