“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” Marcus Aurelius

These words, penned so long ago by a Roman philosopher, give us a precious gift as well, don’t they? They remind us of how much we have to be grateful for with the glorious, hopeful dawning of each new day.

Each new day is an open book of empty pages — it brings us the chance to start anew, to bring fresh energy and aliveness to our creative life.

Each new day offers us the opportunity to think and reflect, to bring deeper insight and inventive ideas to the work of our hands.

Each new day can give us moments to enjoy and savor the words we play with and artfully arrange to trigger emotions in our readers.

And with each new day, we can move forward with improving our craft and enriching our ability to say what we want and long to say.

Life itself brings hardship and heartache—and so does our writing life. There are times when we feel we fall short in capturing our thoughts and sharing them. There are times when the world doesn’t seem all that interested in what we have to give. There are times when we doubt ourselves and whether what we are doing really matters.

But let’s also remember the good times, the precious moments that make it all worthwhile: The flash of insight that we catch before it slips away. The fulfillment that comes from grappling with something difficult that we really care about and making progress. The joy that flows from our hearts onto the page when we write a golden sentence or find a golden word—one that releases its meaning with gusto!

All these treasures and pleasures of the writing life remind us what a “precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” Let’s take these words to heart as we all write on.