Today's Meditation: Meditations , 7.22 (Hicks and Hicks) Behold the power of the Stoic promise: forgiveness and affection; perspective; dreedom from harm. There are worse fates. More work to do expanding my sphere of interest and becoming truly a citizen of the world. More work to do understanding error as ignorance and forgiveness as natural and unbidden. More work to do rejecting harm from the start.

Today's Meditation: Meditations , 7.21 (Hicks and Hicks) Present author excluded. Thank goodness. Myself? Yeah, probably within 15-20 years. Maybe more if I improve my health. But that's ok. It's fine. I'm not meant to be remembered forever. So what? Oh no! I'm like everybody else in history! I can live with that.

Today's Meditation: Meditations , 7.17 (Hicks and Hicks) I am not angry with you, but just go away.  Impulses, stray thoughts, intrusive thoughts, all are natural, if unwanted. I can acknowledge that there's no issues that they showed up — I'm not somehow culpable, not to be blamed, for them — but that I do not need to indulge them. I can tell them to go and return to my task at hand.

Today's Mediation: Meditations , 7.14 (Hicks and Hicks) If I choose not to be harmed, I am not harmed. But but but what about physical injury!? Haven't you ever seen one of those inspirational stories about someone who lost a limb or is paralyzed and hasn't let that define their life? What more do you need to prove that if you truly choose not to be harmed, then you are not harmed .

Today's Mediation: Meditations , 7.3 (Hicks and Hicks) A mild manner and without condescension. This hits too close to home for me. I am guilty of this sin. Help me to do better, O Emperor!  Seriously though, I do need to be better at treating others with all the respect they deserve as members of the common polity. And measuring worth by what is person cares about, what they value? Luckily, Stoicssm is an active philosophy, so what a person cares about will be easily observed in what they do and say. I hope my actions speak well of me.

Today's Mediation: It’s ugly out there…but we don’t have to be ugly. We can be beautiful. We can be kind. We can be honest. We can be decent. We can be good. We have to be.  ~ The Daily Stoic 260225  Help solve the problem, if only by not adding to it; more, if possible. Stop the comments stop the assumptions stop the bias the inequality the inputs. Stop the outputs.

Today's Mediation: Meditations , 2.13 (Hicks and Hicks) Meditations , 2.13 (Waterfield) Meditations , 2.13 (Long) Meditations , 2.13 (Hammond) Fear not what others think. Keep straight my own house and follow Nature. Accept fate and pity those who are ignorant of virtue.

Today's Mediation: "...what harm does that stupid insult do? It’s nothing, Jimmy, it’s empty. Just ignorant words from an ignorant child who is gone from your life the moment it was said.” ...  It happened. It’s done. It doesn’t change your responsibilities. ...  We can keep running the numbers, replaying the mistakes, and assigning fault, but the total never changes. That type of math keeps us stuck in the past. The past is gone, and no amount of calculation will bring it back or make it fair. What we do have is agency right now. We can choose to let go, to move on, and to move forward. Agency doesn’t exist in the past—it only exists now . ~ The Daily Stoic 260222 How do I deal with mistakes? I try to shake them off and move on, but it doesn't always work . . . mainly in the middle of the night. ----- Right now, my son is having a crisis of confidence because he is not as good at his chosen sport (Ultimate) as he wants to be. Worse, he feels this because we play pick up w...

Today's Mediation: You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible Meditation is as meditation does. As Forrest Gump as that sounds, it seems to be the nut here. Meditation without self-castigation is allowed. I don't have to flagellate mysf for not having stopped all thought processes or for motic8ng the car horn on the highway outside. Accept. Roll with it. Keep going. Far less frustrating than expecting too much.

Today's Mediation: Meditations , 7.1 (Hicks and Hicks) Nothing is new under the sun, all that happens has happened before. The world is full of evil people and atrocities; I cannot demand that it not be. I can accept that it is and do my best within such a world.

Today's Mediation: Meditations , 6.59 (Hicks and Hicks) if hindsight with rob this moment of its importance, urgency, emotion, or confusion, why not adopt that attitude now and be done with the distraction?

Today's Mediation: Meditations , 6.56 (Hicks and Hicks) Three I visited today. Good night, mom. Good night, dad. Good night, son.

Today's Mediation: Meditations , 5.31 (Hicks and Hicks) How many assholes have I been kind to? Oof. Tough question. Some? Definitely. Many? Not by a long shot. Needs be more? Definitely. A right proper measure of the kindness of a person's life. Not exact, but an acceptable approximation. Those are rookie numbers. I need to pump those numbers up.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible Buried mom a few days back. Dad was a year and a half ago. My son died thirteen years ago. The table is supposed to be getting more crowded at this point in my life. Not less.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible I love watching the sunset from my back porch. I'll do this next time I am out there.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here  by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible Let my breath be. Let it be as it wishes to be. On its own schedule. It's own pattern and depth and frequency and pause and joy.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here  by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible Rage, rage against the dying of the evil? Wait. What? No. Tenderness. Nonduality. Oneness. Wholeness. Acceptance of all as human. Integration. Transcendence. Proceed.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here  by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible Our chief weapon is recognition . . . recognition and acceptance . . . acceptance and recognition . . . . Our two weapons are acceptance and recognition . . . and ruthless wisdom . . . . Our *three* weapons are acceptance, recognition, and ruthless wisdom...and an almost fanatical devotion to virtue . . . . Our *four* . . . no . . . *Amongst* our weapons . . . . Amongst our weaponry . . . are such elements as acceptance, recognition . . . . I'll come in again. Recognition, naming, robs a thing of power. Not all, but much. It removes mystery, uncertainty, doubt, and confusion. Aha! Now I know what I am facing. Now I see the outline of the issue. Acceptance, doesn't rob: it co-opts; it merges; it joins and assimilates. Together, they can allow us peace. They can offer tranquility.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here  by Thich Nhat Hanh, Healing Our Wounds and Pain Emotions come and go, though in the moment it may seem they'll last forever. Buddhism teaches me to accept emotions, unfurl them to see their dimensions and textures, hold them to become familiar and by that, understand.  Today, we buried my mom's urn. The service was very nice. The eulogies, poignant, touching, and heartfelt. We shared our memories and emotions. Stories I'd never heard and aspects of my mom shown to friends and peers but not children. I loved it.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here  by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible This sadness will pass — pass through and into and intermixed and whole — as I integrate it into my self. This pain will pass. Or, rather this pain will integrate, become a piece of me, indelible, ineluctable, included. Part and parcel and peace of me.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here  by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible It's not a battle. It's not opposition or fixing. It's acceptance and adaptation. It's going with instead of going through. I have sometimes felt mediation difficult for just such errors: tusseling against wayward thoughts; straining versus emotions and impulses. Now that I've read this need not be true from someone who is supposed to know, I have permission to relax and find more success which will surely come because I've grasped this vital insight, this epiphany. Damnit 

Today's Mediation: Meditations , 6.53 (Hicks and Hicks) Pay attention. Pay attention to the person. The meaning comes with. Perhaps understanding after that. At least, understanding is more likely or, if not exactly understanding, then empathy and connection.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here  by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible Let it be. How hard is that? No, really how hard is that? Oh! The urge to meddle. To fix. To fixate. Insidious. Sly. Crafty. I don't even see it coming until I've already stuck my nose in. Every once in a while I notice and try to stop it —  IF I notice, I usually can; awareness is the key —but too often I only recognize what's happened after I've interfered. You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone. Meditations 6.52 (Hicks and Hicks) How wonderful it is to be able to have no opinion. If I've no opinion, I've no reason to butt in. Saving me trouble and unwanted emotions such as frustration, anger, envy. Learn to not fight. To let be. To accept as is. To lose preconception.

Today's Mediation: You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness and Peace are Possible My pain is me. My uncertainty is me. My embarrassment, my fear, my denial  All me. I'm better at managing my emotions than I was. Doesn't mean I don't have to try so hard. And even when I know the right thing and do the right thing, it still too often hurts. Or is right, but unsatisfying in others ways. I can't help but feel that dissatisfaction and wish that, beyond virtue the money would have worked, or I'd not have been shamed, or that I would, in general, have 'come out better.'

Today's Mediation: You’re not going to look back and regret that you drove a more convenient car for your family. You’re not going to look back and think, “I was such a loser” because you went along with something they were all excited about. On the contrary, you’re going to regret that you were stubborn. You’re going to regret that you insisted on things being harder than they needed to be. You’re going to wonder why you cared so much about what other people think . ~ The Daily Stoic 260205 Deciding to be a dad is one of the best things I've ever done.