Daily Stoic Thoughts

Thought provoking thing from the Daily Stoic today: “When Marcus Aurelius quoted Heraclitus — about how we can never step in the same river twice — this is what he was encouraging. We cannot content ourselves with first impressions or encounters, we must constantly revisit everything. Revisit the pages of books, revisit the sights we have overlooked, revisit the ordinary beauty of the world.”

On one hand, I’m fascinated by the fact that we will never step into the same river twice. The water is at the same time old and new. Dip your finger in and it’s as much new water running through your hand– fresh, virgin, never touched by you before– yet at the same time it’s already old. Gone down stream as quickly as it came. Such is life. Each moment is within itself the oldest you’ve ever been, yet youngest you’ll ever be. But it’s all we have. There is no wisdom in dwelling on regrets of the past or in living in anxious dependence on the future. There is only now. Because time is like that flow of water in the river and you are the hand. Water slips by you just as quickly as it came. Embrace its current because it is current. This moment is all we have.

On the other hand, this is also a reflection on life’s duties. Such as reading a book. Literature that you read last year will inevitably be different when you read it today. Moments and memories paved in days past have created new circumstances which cause you to interpret text differently. Revisit the old and mundane with new eyes.