The Measure of a Year

Happy Sunday Friends!

First, an apology. I didn’t post last week. It was my birthday, and I retreated to Blue Ridge with my family.
Outside of cell range, with the trees, streams, nature. It was slow, less of a lot. Pretty great.

Here’s one quote I’m musing on this week, two ideas, three favorites, and one question to take with you into the week ahead.

One Quote I’m Musing

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

| Marcus Aurelius

📆 The Measure of a Year

To the Stoics didn’t birthdays weren’t just feasts and gifts.
They used them as audits.

A birthday isn’t proof of survival.
It was a moment to ask: Have I lived well? Have I lived intentionally?

Seneca would remind us that every birthday isn’t just a year gained, it’s a year gone.
Marcus would treat the day as a reaffirmation of self-command.
Epictetus would simply say: “Another year to practice.”

That’s the Stoic’s view of aging: not decline, but refinement.
Each year reveals who we’ve chosen to be through our actions.
Every decision, every failure and success, every small act of integrity is a vote for the person we’ll become.
The past year isn’t gone; it’s recorded in our character.

And so today, I’m less interested in what I’ve done, and more interested in who those choices have made me.

Have I remained steady when things shifted?
Have I spoken honestly when silence was easier?
Have I kept my principles when no one was watching?

These are the candles to count.

📚🎧☕ Consulting with the Dead

We live in turbulent times.
Then again, when hasn’t humanity lived in turbulent and trying times?

Consult with the dead. Read their letters, their histories, their laments.
Every age believed it was living through turbulent times, the end of something.
And yet, here we are. Still building, still hoping, still trying.

The Stoics would tell us that “turbulent times” aren’t the exception.
They’re the default condition of human life.
The test has always been the same: how will you respond?

So, rather than asking, “What do I want from this year?”
Ask, “What does this year need from me?”

Because time isn’t something we receive.
It’s something we repay with attention, with courage, with presence.

💡 Two Ideas From Me

• Don’t fear aging, fear misusing time.

• We should measure a year by how we met its difficulties.

🔥 Three Favorite Things This Week

1. Book — Letters from a Stoic by Seneca.

   A perfect birthday reread. Each letter feels like a mirror for the soul.

2. Short Story: The Egg by Andy Weir. A small ritual I’ve kept: rereading this story each year to remind myself that perspective changes everything. | Watch

3. A Ritual: A retreat. Every fall, we head to the Blue Ridge Mountains. No screens, no deadlines, just hikes, apple picking, and slow mornings. It’s less an escape than a recalibration.

❓ One Question for the Week

If this next year were your last full cycle around the sun,
what would you stop postponing?

Write it down.
Then begin.

Until Sunday, my friends.

Think Dangerously.
–e