Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 11.7 (Hicks and Hicks) What is Marcus going through that philosophy was so important to him just then? Waterfield's note on this one takes it exactly the other way: things must be going great if Marcus is freely able to consider doing his philosophy. I wonder why he (and presumably others) read it that way.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 11.4 (Hicks and Hicks) A spurious argument, but a good thought. If my act is spurred by thoughts of others or the community, then I'm on the right path.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 11.5 (Hicks and Hicks) Be good. Learn to be good. Practice being good. Continue to be good. Even when it's inconvenient. Even when it's confusing. Even when it's hard.   I wish I could live up to this.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.38 (Hicks and Hicks) My body isn't me. Thus what happens to my body doesn't necessarily happen to me. My body may be imprisoned, but my self remain free. Without the inner reason, the body is nothing. Useless. Detrimental, if you listen to many traditions.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.37 (Hicks and Hicks) As with everything, start with myself first. Fix myself first. Focus internally first. Build resilience first. Grow into a new world citizen later. At the end of life, we don't get a grade. But if I were to choose a metric which would be worth using, I think this might be it: You are graded based on your contribution to individuals. And on your how well you help the group succeed  proceed excel continue do well   as a group .

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.36 (Hicks and Hicks) A natural act . . . if I do it right. I've had some good examples. A few bad. I hope the worthy ones dyed my soul a deeper hue than those faithless and vicious.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.35 (Hicks and Hicks) Said the man who lost 7? 8? children before he died. I must accept the past. It cannot change. Only my position, my attitude toward it can change. Whether I am willing or unwilling, fate rolls on, uncaring. I can walk or be dragged.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.34 (Hicks and Hicks) Our children are tender leaves as well. We ALL are. All ten thousand things. Even my memory will pass out of people's minds with a few hundred years or so. Assuming humanity lives that long.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.33 (Hicks and Hicks) I try to teach my kids that Stoicism doesn't guarantee success. It guarantees that they will have their best chance at success. Exactly because it focuses us on what we have at hand, on what the situation is without embellishments, and on what is up to us: our internal states and our actions. If I choose not to make the best decisions in that setting, that's on me. I had that option and left it on the table.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.32 (Hicks and Hicks) If I'm a bad person, what good am I? Off what use am I to myself? To my family? Friends and neighbors? If I'm a bad person, I hurt others, causing pain intentionally. There's no good in that. There's no purpose or reason. No gain or positive outcome. So be good. Make my detractors liars. Be the person who helps and improves and gives and loves. Make my life better by making others lives better and being worth a damn.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations 10.31 (Hicks and Hicks) Be calm. Be cool. Relax. Chill. It's fine. It's fine . It's all good. This is better. Expand it. Accept it. Revel in it. Be it. Be here, now. With equanimity, holding me in better stead than other stances. Composure. It's much better.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations 10.31 (Hicks and Hicks) It's all ephemeral. It's all haze, all visions. I am here a short time. I do what I can. I (supposedly) live as I should. I don't expect to be remembered. I expect my contribution will be my children and their effect on the world, not something I personally do. I'm ok with that.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations, 10.30 (Hicks and Hicks) Stop. How many Stoic instructions begin with this simple step? Stop! . . . before I harm my virtue. Stop! . . . before I say that thing that can't be taken back. Stop! . . . before I fuck it up. Take the moment to pause. Step back. Look again. What am I missing? Find Frankl's space between the stimulus and response. Act , rather than re act. Here, it teaches me to be more forgiving and understanding, examining my glass house before I launch my stone.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.23 (Hicks and Hicks) My mission is the same no matter where I am: be a good person, do good things, help others, celebrate others, put people first. And my resources are the same no matter where I am: reason, Nature, right focus, right attitude. Keep working on developing those resources. Keep exercising them. Keep practicing with them. Build that mental 'muscle memory' so that my re actions are closer to the actions I want to take, requiring less adjustment, faster adaptation, more natural attunement between my actions and my goals.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.18 (Hicks and Hicks) Meditations , 10.18 (Waterfield) An extension of yesterday's musing on time and it's lack among all things, today's passage also leans heavily into that ephemeral nature. Things decay and die. Human works decay and die. I decay and die. It's part of my purpose here. To leave. To 'exit the party' when the time is right rather than overstay my welcome.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.17 (Hicks and Hicks) Meditations , 10.17 (Waterfield) This? ALL this? This is nothing. Utterly insignificant on scales of time and extension. Now, no one will notice. Soon, no one will care. So my life has only what meaning I bring to it. Simple. Devastating. Hopeful. Insignificant still. Done , still. So get and do.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 10.16 (Hicks and Hicks) Meditations , 10.16 (Waterfield) My favorite Stoic quote. Keeps me on track. Keeps me focused. Keeps me here, now. Keeps me aware. Keeps me decisive. Keeps me courageous. Keeps me with Nature and Reason.

Today's Meditation(s): He'd have been 17, but I gave him back 14 years ago. This is an indifferent to Stoics. But that's a technical term. It's not I don't — or am not allowed to— care that he's dead. It's not it doesn't hurt. It's not this isn't important. It's keeping myself within rational bounds in my grief. It's acknowledging, without surrending to, my mourning. It's living with it and continuing, if only for my family in those times when I feel maybe my personal existence isn't worth the ticket It's feeling I failed to give my other kids what they deserved (they should have their brother) and this robbed them of so many, so many better , lives. So here I am. And there he is. There he was.

Today's Meditation(s): The most highly paid athletes in the world, the people who have practiced and trained their whole lives, the ones with every incentive and every predisposition necessary—what do they apparently need from their coaches? They need to be reminded over and over again of the basics. They need little mantras and mottos. They need encouragement. They need to hear the coach repeat the team values and rules over and over and over again..... If the pros need to hear it a thousand times, your kids probably need to hear it again. And by ‘it,’ we mean everything—every lesson, every rule, every instruction. And by ‘again,’ we mean essentially an infinite number of times. Not just for sports, but for all the things you want them to understand, for all the things they do. They’re going to need to hear it explained, over and over and over. They’re going to need it simplified, boiled down to its essence. They’re going to need it put up on the wall. They’re going to need to hea...

Today's Meditation(s): Likewise, life is an indifferent, but what we make of life isn’t indifferent. So, when you’re told that even these things are indifferents, that’s not a reason for carelessness; and when you’re urged to take care, that’s not a reason for debasing yourselves and placing value on material things.  Epictetus, Discourses 2.6.1 Indifferents are things without moral import. Not things which have no effect on my life. Discourses  (Waterfield) 2.1. 5-6 The car about to hit me head on? Indifferent to my moral standing. Important to my continued living. The rule is that I should not sacrifice the more important (virtue) for the less (externals). If I can avoid the oncoming car without selling my soul, I may (and probably should) turn, brake, veer, etc. And if I can only save myself by killing another person? There is the test.

Today's Meditation(s): Discourses by Epictetus, 2.2.21a, 2.2.24b-2.2.25a Waterfield:   "Make my mind capable of adapting itself to whatever happens." ...if circumstances test you in a different way, what will you say or do? Remember this general principle, then, and you’ll never be short of advice. Hard:   "Ensure that my mind will be able to adapt itself to whatever come about." If the circumstances should dictate something different, what will you say, what will you do? Keep this general principle in mind, then, and you’ll never be in need of advice. Long:   "Enable my mind to adapt itself to whatever comes." For if circumstances dictate something different, what will you say or what will you do? Bear in mind, therefore, this general principle and you will not be at a loss for a suggestion. Oldfather:  "Well, form my mind so as to accommodate itself to any event." For if circumstances require something else, what will you say or what will y...

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations, 9.10 (Hicks and Hicks) Even if it seems counterproductive now, reason will out. Work to give it the time it needs to let passion pass and let the elephant be swayed. That's an important duty.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations, 9.7 (Hicks and Hicks) Give my reason a chance , I take it. The elephant leads....

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations, 9.6 (Hicks and Hicks) Doing these things will be enough to lead to the tranquility I am searching for. Do them.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations, 9.4 (Hicks and Hicks) No one does evil willingly and knowingly. They are vicious because they misunderstand what virtue is and why it's important. If they knew they'd choose good.