June 20, 2026

Omnia, Lucili, aliena sunt, tempus tantum nostrum est.

Seneca wrote this to his friend Lucilius around 65 AD, near the end of his own life, when he was increasingly under suspicion by Emperor Nero and had little control over his circumstances. The letter opens with Seneca urging Lucilius to stop letting other people consume his days through small requests, idle conversation, and distractions that feel important but aren't. He wasn't arguing for isolation — he was arguing for intentionality, for choosing how your time gets spent rather than having it taken by default. The point for service today is sharp: contributing something real to another person requires first deciding to give them your actual attention, not the leftover hours after everything else.