The past is fixed. The future is uncertain.

Own The Present

posted in

Stoicism

"The longest amounts to the same as the shortest. The present is the same for everyone; its loss is the same for everyone; and it should be clear that a brief instant is all that is lost. For you can’t lose either the past or the future; how could you lose what you don’t have?" — Marcus Aurelius

We have no ownership of the past.
We have no claim on the future.
The present is all we have to give.

Whether newborn or well seasoned, every one of us owns this moment alone... and then it too is lost to us forever. The past is a parting gift. The future is but a promise of what could be. One is stamped into history. The other shifts with the echoes of present action.

Vast riches cannot purchase ownership beyond the now. For richer or poorer, neither wishing nor wanting, neither skill nor natural ability can change the past or clarify the future. We all stand as one in the moment.

Life does not tarry in the past or cling to a future with no guarantee. It exists only in the moment. All effort is focused there... building on the lessons of the past while shaping an uncertain future.

Enjoy those parting gifts of the past. May they remind us of love, loss and everything in between. But do not fix your attention there, for the present is all we have. As one moment bleeds into the next, so does opportunity to act.

Enjoy the promise of the future. May it light a fire in us to forge new paths through the unknown. But do not covet what can never be certain. The key to every future lies in the present. Clarity comes with action, and action resides in the here and now.

If the present moment is unkind, know the next may prove otherwise. A moment is just that... one brief instant in a lengthy reel. But we will never win the present while focused elsewhere... where control is merely an illusion.