“Were you to live three thousand years, or even a countless multiple of that, keep in mind that no one ever loses a life other than the one they are living, and no one ever lives a life other than the one they are losing. The longest and the shortest of life, then, amount to the same, for the present moment lasts the same for all and is all anyone possesses. No one can lose either the past or the future, for how can someone be deprived of what’s no theirs?” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.14
Thoughts
Recently, in my readings I found this quote from Marcus Aurelius.
This has always be something that I have grappled with, being in the present moment.
I often get pulled in to planning the next step or dreams about living abroad in Japan again or what the next step of my career is.
Sometimes, I can get pulled backwards into the past by revisiting moments that were “better” or rehashing argument that I was either too weak to do anything about or just plain lost.
I find that both direction pull me away from the only place I am existing… right now.
The Trap of Overthinking
I think about that quite often; how I find myself falling into the trap that over thinkers tend to fall into whilst calling it progress.
I want to grow, improve, and move forward in life, and in those thoughts I catch myself not being present in the moment, with the people I am with in the conversations that I am apart of.
I don’t think it’s a daydream, but more living in a future that I haven’t created yet.
This can inevitably lead me to suffer as Seneca says “…we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
It’s this insatiable hunger to look for more by wanting the past to be more than what has occurred and wanting the future to unfold exactly the way I want it to.
The Only Moment We Control
I am trading the present moment to live in the Past and in the Future.
I can actively neglecting the Now when I do this, when the present moment is all I really have.
The present moment is the only thing within my grasp, it is the only time I have agency, it is the only space that I operate in… and yet I chose to live somewhere else in my minds.
This isn’t self-deprecation, but a reminder to myself that the present is to be experienced and it does have an expiration date which, at best, is 45 – 50 years away and at worst today at some point.
So, remember to live. Remember to love. Remember to enjoy to the moment.
Jack Merrett
March 15, 2026