The Leaves Are On The Ground
The Daily Stoic
October 16, 2026
You can see it happening to the trees. You can feel it in the air. It’s fall. 🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! ✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? -- Stop online threats before they become real-world attacks. Hosted on Acast.
Speakers Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday (0:00)
Welcome to The Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice and wisdom into the real world.
The leaves are on the ground. You can see it happening to the trees, you can feel it in the air. It's fall. This doesn't just mean festivals and markets, family pictures and perhaps depending on what country you live in, Halloween or Thanksgiving or some other holiday. It doesn't just mean yard work, raking those leaves, prepping the lawn for winter, planting bulbs for spring. Doesn't just mean sweaters and rain boots. It means that another season has come and gone. Means another season of your life has come and gone.
Marcus Aurelius in Meditations talks about olives falling right from the tree onto the ground, talks about them decaying and going back into the earth. This was a metaphor he thought for us. We too have a limited shelf life. We too are falling and decaying. None of us are here forever.
If summer went by in a blur, as we talked about recently, well, let's make sure we are more present for fall. Let's not wish a moment away just because the weather is dreary or because we have something we are looking forward to. Let's be here for it. Be present for our families, for what's happening around us, for our life in this moment, and enjoy it while it's here.
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