Verba Diei VII

"Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV, Entry 43

I'll keep the seventh reflection simple: everything in life flows.

What we call "now" is already slipping into memory. The frustrations that dominated yesterday? Carried away. The glories of today? Soon gone. Marcus, no stranger to power or impermanence, saw time not as an enemy to be conquered but as a force to be respected - a river whose current we cannot stop, only learn to swim in.

This isn’t pessimism. It’s permission. If time washes all things away, then our mistakes aren’t eternal. Our fears, our embarrassments, and even our successes - none of them define us forever. The current will take them. And that means we are free, not fixed.

So what remains? Only how we navigate this moment - the stroke we take in the river right now. Practice clarity. Choose stillness. Accept the flow.

You are not the water. You are the swimmer.