Today's Meditation(s): Meditations , 8.8 (Hicks and Hicks) I told my son this just the other day: never stop learning, never stop improving yourself. Even if I can't be as good as I wish in XYZ, I can always be better at things internal to me. Kindness  Trust  Generosity of mind, heart, resources Understanding Forgiviness Assistance Instruction Listening and attention Care Gentleness Love Any of these can be better at any time. I'll never be so good that I can't improve, that I can't find a way to treat my fellow humans as important, as people, as ends in themselves.

Today's Meditation Meditations , 8.7 (Hicks and Hicks) Reason clearly. Help others.  Change what I can. Love what I cannot. That's only four things. Easy peasy....  Concentrating on a limited set of precepts lets me focus my energy, more easily discovering the Tao of the moment. Not that it will be easy. Choices can still be grueling. Options can still force me to exclude something I desperately want or need or which is patently good in favor of an option better still or more important. It. Can. Still. Suck . . . challenging me to embrace my fate and the state of the world around me. A lesson I truly need to work on.

Today's Meditation: Meditations , 8.5 (Hicks and Hicks) Being a good person, following Nature, pursuing virtue . . . . I can still be kind. I can still be gentle. Still quiet, respectful, and dignified.  I can use my philosophy to be better in all ways, especially those which help me treat others well and help my community.

Today's Meditation: Meditations , 8.4 (Hicks and Hicks) The world is as it is. I can accept this and make my way, doing what I can, or I can reject it, "kick against the pricks," and see where that gets me. When I fight Nature, I've lost my way. Equanimity will always be over the horizon when I refuse to accept the truth of the world and insist on my own way. Would that ugly and vicious people did not exist. Would that accidents and delays did not happen. Would that disappointment and frustration stopped plaguing our lives But it does. They do. They will. Live according to Nature and accept the world as it is. There is peace.

Today's Meditation: Meditations , 8.1 (Hicks and Hicks) Not praise. Not sex. Neither food nor wine nor drugs. Not adrenaline or travel or rest. Being good feels best, is best. Be good. Be just. Be temperate. Be courageous. Be kind. Be wise.

Today's Meditation: Meditations , 7.73 (Hicks and Hicks) Do it because  it's right and be happy wrih that. I've done right. I've kept my word. I've lived up to my ideals. I've cleared my conscience. I've been true to who I want to be. I've been the person I want my kids to emulate. How should this not be enough?

Today's Meditation: Meditations , 7.69 (Hicks and Hicks) Without speeding up or slowing down or pretending to be other than you are... Now THAT'S a high bar. Then again, our favorite emperor does call it perfection: something to which I can aspire but which is not possible to achieve.

Today's Meditation: Staying with Illusions for a moment . . . “Donald,” I said when I got to the field, “I have come to the conclusion that you just don’t live in this world.” He looked at me startled from the top of his wing, where he was learning to pour gas into the tank. “Of course not. Can you tell me one person who does?” “What do you mean, can I tell you one person who does. ME! I live in this world!” “Excellent,” he said, as though through independent study I had uncovered a hidden mystery. “Remind me to buy you lunch today... I marvel at the way you never stop learning.” I puzzled over that. He wasn’t being sarcastic or ironic; he had meant just what he said. “What do you mean? Of course I live in this world. Me and about four billion other people. It’s you who...” “Oh, God, Richard! You’re serious! Cancel the lunch. No hamburger, no malt, no nothing at all! Here I had thought you had reached this major knowing -” He broke off and looked down on me in angry pity. “You’re s...

Today's Meditation: Stoicism isn’t about being appreciated. It’s not about fitting in. It’s about doing what’s right. It’s about saying what needs to be said. It’s about being who you feel you need to be. So if you’re waiting for your friends to understand you, if you’re holding back until you get approval from family members or colleagues, if you think your entire audience will get on board…you’re waiting for something that may never come. Do what you believe is right. Do what you believe is just. The rest isn’t up to you. ~ The Daily Stoic 260325 It's not going to make me rich. Except by coincidence. It's not going to make me popular. Except by accident. It's not going to make me smarter. Except as I follow Nature. Do it for the inner reward. Do it because I need to set an example for my kids. Do it that I may be unashamed of the man in the glass .

Today's Meditation: In the book Illusions by Richard Bach, there's a scene where the protagonist and his spiritual guide are discussing freedom. The guide, Donald, tells our hero that, " We are all free to do whatever we want to do. ” The main character offers a proviso: “Almost. You forgot a pretty important part,” I said. “Oh?” “We are all free to do what we want to do, as long as we don’t hurt somebody else,” I chided. Shortly thereafter, following the brief appearance of an ersatz vampire, Don continues: “The thing that puzzles you,” he said, “is an accepted saying that happens to be impossible. The phrase is hurt somebody else . We choose, ourselves, to be hurt or not to be hurt, no matter what. Us who decides. Nobody else. My vampire told you he’d be hurt if you didn’t let him? That’s his decision to be hurt, that’s his choice. What you do about it is your decision, your choice: give him blood; ignore him; tie him up; drive a stake of holly through his heart. If he ...

Today's Meditation: They want to go swimming, but it’s a little cold. They’re suddenly asking about their rollerblades, which you just put away in the garage. They’re asking about playing in the snow, but it’s a pain to get all that winter gear on. They asked to go to the park, even though you don’t have much time. In short, they’ve asked to go spend time outside…and you have a problem with that? Are you insane?  - Daily Dad 260324 Guilty. This counts for music, reading, thinking, and and of the million other -ings I want them to do. Why on Earth do I grouse and moan that it inconveniences me when I have been begging them to do this stuff day in and day out forever? Pick FFS. Pick better.

Today's Meditation: Fortune behaves as she pleases, the Stoics said. Life disposes. It decides. The only thing we get a choice in is how we respond. Daily Stoic 260323 Make the choice. Don't let the default become the inevitable. Get active. Use my tools. Act .

Today's Meditation: Meditations , 7.68 (Hicks and Hicks) I tell my kids that Stoicism does not guarantee success. Properly excerised, it offers me the best chance of being as effective I possibly can. I'll be calmer. I'll make clearer decisions. I'll have a better chance of guiding my elephant rather than it bringing reason along for the ride.