As you wrapped yesterday up, you should have said to yourself, as Seneca did each night, “that’s it.” I have lived my life. As you tucked your children in last night, you should have said to yourself, as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius did, this might be the last time.

So this morning, when you awoke, you were in a unique position, weren’t you? Whether you woke up early or late, in pain or jumping out of bed, on top of the world or in a slow moving, unending nightmare, You could honestly say to yourself, as the Smashing Pumpkins song goes, that today is the greatest day that I have ever known.

Because whatever is happening, you did wake up. You got another day! You have another chance!

How wonderful is that? What a gift!

We thought of ourselves as dead, as Marcus Aurelius tried to do, and then we were given a reprieve. Now we must take this bonus time, this extra day–in the world, with the people we love–and live it properly.