welcome to morning reading.

Hello friend,Thanks for taking the plunge and sending me your email. This email will be long enough, so I won't go on and on about how much it means to me. I'll just say: thank you. As a long time reader, I’ve felt the calling to throw my hat in the ring and try my hand at writing books like the ones I love. Finding my tone and starting to build some identity is the first step, which I want to do through this—Morning Reading, a daily reflection. Each day brings a new thought, sometimes light, sometimes somber, meant to stick with you throughout the day.Morning reading is a practice I've held in different ways for the last 10 years or so, guiding me through college and corporate jobs and relationships and seasons of life of all sorts. It's a tiny little reflective corner of my day—sometimes an appetizer to being creative, other times, the only brief moment of my day when the world is at peace. Whether I was reading from one book, or a little a day from a daily planner, or a chapter from something more important, it was there with me.I realize daily emails aren't everyone's cup of tea, so please feel free to unsubscribe at any time—your support of joining without even knowing what you were joining is enough. There will be more to come, but for now, you can read the first letter from daily reading—true to form, sent a day late and in the afternoon. Small steps :) . Really, truly, sincerely—thank you. Zach

THE YOU CATASTROPHE

Hello friend, 

It doesn’t take much work to realize the world is a complicated place. We’re barely born with enough capacity to understand ourselves, much less the other 8 billion people marooned on the same earth, much less the billions of dead people from generations before us, each just as complicated, unique, and individualistic as us. 

It’s enough to make your head spin (and spin a lot faster than the planet we share.)

In the day-to-day, exact moment of our lives, everything is obvious. Pain. Pleasure. A relatively limited number of emotional responses. But add time to the mixture and everything breaks down—the pain of breaking down your muscles quickly fades to the joy of working out. The serotonin hit of the last email you sent quickly sours as you begin to rethink whether you really needed to say

everything

you feel. 

It’s one of history’s largest lessons. Not history as the far-off, stuffy recollection of the past—your own history. Your memories. Your life experiences. You know it to be true: not everything is as it seems. The world of what is good and bad for us never stays static for very long.

The Greeks had a word for one of these types of things—the secret power of the complicated world. The eucatastrophe; a horrible, no good happening that ends up being the best possible thing for you. 

It’s not to say bad things are secretly good, or to make light of your struggles. It’s the hidden power of letting go—the knowledge that any circumstance, no matter how good or bad, isn’t over until it’s over. It’s letting go of thinking of yourself as an impartial judge. There are some decisions only time can judge—so until they pass that judgment, let it go. 

Here’s to a great Wednesday.

JOURNAL PROMPT: What’s a negative experience or event from your past that ended up having an ultimately positive benefit in your life?