Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast, where we provide one lesson every single day to help you with your most important job, being a parent.

I'm Ryan Holiday, and I draw these lessons from ancient philosophy, modern psychology, practical wisdom,

and insights from parents just like you all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

It's a temple.

The house is noisy, it's messy, it's expensive, and not easy to maintain.

It's filled with toys and sharp Legos that you step on in the middle of the night.

It's dirty, it's got one obligation after another.

And yet it is wonderful, so, so wonderful.

The whole job of it, the whole mess of it.

We must think of ourselves as ministers and priests in our own house as in a temple,

the Stoic philosopher, Hierocles once said, chosen and consecrated to nature itself.

The drive to baseball practice is not a chore but a sacred duty. Bedtime is a ritual of great meaning.

Mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, picking up the toys. This is making

and unmaking the mandala, a piece of art, a process that never ends. The yelling and the screaming,

this is chamber music, the arguing and the fights. This is the debate, the great conversations.

And it's all wonderful, and it's quite wholly, should you choose to see it this way. We are lucky to get to do it.

All of it, even the hard stuff, the expensive stuff, the exhausting stuff. How do you know? Ask any

parent with an empty nest. Ask any parent who's buried a child. They'll tell you what they give

for just one more service, one more afternoon in the temple that is full house. They'll tell you just how much

it means to them.

Hey, you're listening to the Daily Dad podcast. One meditation a day inspired to help you do your

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