Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.13 It's the difference between participating and committing; between the chicken and the pig at breakfast.  In one, I do it because I believe it to be right. In the other, I do it because it is my first thought, automatic and natural. I've not achieved that yet.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.12 Am I morally upright? Need I be made morally correct with aid from others? Regardless of the source of the action, that is my goal. If I can do it alone? Great. Get to it. If I cannot do it of my own volition? Great. I recognize my deficiency and correct it with instruction from outside. The point is to be a good person, not to do everything myself. Cf. 7.7

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.10 Life and the universe, and all they hold, are transitory, temporary, ephemeral, and inconstant; soon to devolve into constituent parts and forgotten. Deal with it. It has always been this way. It will always be this way. There is no shame or regret in this. It simply is. Accept it and move on. Crying does nothing. Wailing does nothing. Better to live with dignity, following reason and Nature, and love my fate. Here lies equanimity. Here lies satisfaction.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 7.5 Do what I can, with what I have, or with help from others, to the best of my ability, for the benefit of others. And people think Stoicism is heartless.

Today's Meditation: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, p. 10 Human resilience can accommodate Auschwitz. Imagine how crazy that is . . . t orture, beatings, mass executions, betrayal on all levels. And that's just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head. There are more. But man can get used to anything.

Today's Meditation: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, p. 10 Hope is a powerful thing, Persephone's only remaining 'gift.' (Though perhaps the worst of all.) But the loss of hope, the loss of the expected out, can have devastating effects. Hope was often the very trait that signified immanent despair and ultimately, death, in the prisoners.

Today's Meditation: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, p. 6 Some things must be experienced to be understood. Frankl's circumstance is one I'll never have true knowledge of, but perhaps his words will give me enough flavor to enlighten me. He wants to present this in a detached manner, but cannot since he is an integral part of the story. Even so, things can be objectified at least to some extent and thus he tries. And he knows that this is a challenge so he works at it.

Today's Meditation: Meditations  (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.52 I don't care. Or rather, I do care, just perhaps not the way it's usually meant.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.57 My mistakes certainly can control me. Misjudged decisions, overlooked opportunities, premature quitting, biased perceptions, and more. They set my course more often than any conscious decisions on my part.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.51 Equanimity depends on knowing what is up to me and focusing on that. If my attention is true, my happiness will be attainable.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.50 The Stoic reserve clause. As the Catholics put it, " Deus vult " ("God willing"). If Fate permits. If Providence allows. If Fortune falls our way . . . all just ways of saying that things not up to me are, in point of fact, not up to me. Maybe my efforts will succeed. Maybe they will fall short or be actively thwarted. Neither is my concern. My goal is to perform as best I can. Perhaps that will be enough. Perhaps not. Whether the arrow hits the target is subject to myriad vagaries and unpredictable influences. I must accept the result and be happy that I did all I could to achieve my aim.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.48 I need better friends.... I kid,  I kid. My friends are good people. And it is nice to think of their generosity, kindness, attention to detail, loyalty, companionship, consideration, and more. They make me better. They've made me better. If I get lucky, they'll continue to make me better. Guess it all depends on whether or not I can learn what they are teaching me.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.47 History will forget me soon, if it designs to remember me at all. I'm OK with that. Ive never planned on a personal legacy. Only that my children be good people and pass that along to their children, future families, and friends. That all I want. And if that happens, I'll be more than happy. None of that is up to me. What is, is how I treat people and raise my kids. It's what I can decide. It's decisions I can make. It's what's up to me.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.46 Marcus was in a particularly morose, pessimistic mood it seems. History may not always repeat exactly, but it always at least rhymes.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.42 Be sure, in this great drama, to be more than a throw-away line or a coarse jest. What a great line!* Amor fati. Accept my fate. Engage it. Pursue it even. Know my role. Make my brief time on stage memorable, worth it. Give myself over to the role and play it well. ===== ×  And this translation more felicitous than others.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.41 Stop blaming others for shit that isn't truly bad or good, it simply is. Preferred or dispreferred, it isn't what really counts. Now to actually live that way....

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.39 Yet Stoicism is a cold and heartless philosophy. Pshaw. Those who think thlis need but read the Meditations, even superficially, to learn otherwise. It could be said any planer or more often that a major thrust of the thought is bent to oikeosis  — concern and help toward others. We are all alike. We are all part of humanity. We are all meant for one another.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.31 How much of my suffering is self-made? How much more do I worry and fret about things that haven't happened? That may never happen? That likely won't happen?  Things I make up to worry about above and beyond what's actually happening in my life? Limit my assumptions. Focus my thoughts. Ignore the little voice that invents things just to bother me. Stop allowing imaginary things, things almost universally not up to me, to cause stress and strife. Focus on reality. Reality, while not always to my liking, at least is real enough for me to try and change it for the better.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.30 Respect Nature. Be kind. Be helpful. Be good. 'Don't be a dick' and that shall be the whole of the law .

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.26 Fighting with the world because it's not how I wish it to be is a fool's errand. My car won't run if I don't put gas in it. Why am I getting frustrated that I have to put gas in my car? It's how the world works, whether I like it or not. I may as well be mad that gravity holds me to the ground when I want to fly or let myself become pissed that I don't already know the contents of a book I haven't yet read. It never makes things better. In fact, it often deliberately makes things worse. Oh but I feel better, right? My righteous offensensitivity is assuaged . . . while I've just created three more problems to deal with. And,despite knowing this, I do it anyway. More stupid me.

Today's Meditation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.24 We all possess the same fate . . . and we don't know what it is. Eternal recurrence? Dissolution into atoms? Becoming one with everything? Cloud nine? Fiery pits? Nothing? So live this life as best I can. While I'm here, do what I can, give what I can, teach what I can, love who I can. The future is uncertain. Be good today.

Today's Mediation: Meditations (trans. Hicks and Hicks), 6.21 And so, I wait for instruction.

Today's Meditation: Letters on Ethics: to Lucilius by Seneca (trans. Graver and Long), 3.2 Thus my immediate prior actions and attitude.

Today's Meditation: Letters on Ethics: to Lucilius by Seneca (trans. Graver and Long), 2.6 Want less, have enough. There's no limit to cupidity. Want  expands to outstrip supply. My desire will always exceed my grasp, if let it. So that's part of my job: control my avarice, throttle my avidity. If I want equanimity, I must be content with what I have.

Today's Meditation: Letters on Ethics: t o Lucilius by Seneca (trans. Graver and Long), 2.4 Read great writers. Read great books. Read to absorb. Read to know . Don't just read. Read well. Back to my Stoic root with Seneca's Moral Letters.