Star trekkin' 'cross skies Space is bigger than we think. Our light still shines forth. Daily Stoic: Stilpo was Zeno's mentor.  He taught Zeno the lessons which would become the beginnings of Stoicism and helped Zeno understand that nothing can hurt him with his consent: his mind controls his reality.  Can I survive suffering?   If I find myself subject to immense pain, could I handle it?  Would I fold?  Would I stand?  If I lose a loved one, would I collapse? Would I bear it? Would I exist or survive or thrive or fail?  Though I will eventually find myself subject to such challenges, life inevitably tries us despite our best efforts to the contrary, I can practice on the smaller issues I face each day.  Mental discipline, like any other skill, develops and improves with use. The more I learn to set aside judgments of small events, daily travails, and try to deal with them as they are without adding to or subtracting from reality,...

Voyager flying We were on our way! Soaring Through the dark. Shiny.  Daily Stoic: How much do I want? How much do I need? Why aren't they the same?  If I lost all that I have, economically I'd be back where I was about 30 years ago. I would, however, have to factor in two important differences:  1. I have a family to provide for now.  2. I have experience far beyond what I had then.  If I had to start over, I'd also have the support of friends and family (most of whom are better off now than they were 30 years ago, too).  Even were those supports missing, I know I could survive. Probably not at my current level (for quite a while), but I could provide a roof and food.  Christmas would be minimal, but who cares? The kids would survive. My spouse would survive. I would survive.  From there, all things are possible.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Seneca, On a Happy Life  Today's P...

A lion in pocket An eagle lit through the skies.  Origami fun.  Daily Stoic: Proper judgment starts with understanding what is up to me and what is not up to me.  This is the foundation. How much stress have I avoided in the past year by determining something was not under my control and therefore I chose to let it pass?  How much stress have I added in the past year by failing to determine something was not under my control and therefore I chose to waste worry on it?  Today's Meditation: Today's Poem I: Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends  Today's Poem II: Oscar Wilde, Uncollected Poems

Philosophy read Sand, wind, weight, red skies, and dark. Ideas embers lit. Daily Stoic: If I worry, if my soul takes that tack, it becomes a lens through which I will see the world.  Then I forget to take them off and they remain, coloring my life. Backing up, worry can be good.  If done the right way, for the right reason, to the right extent, ended at the right time.  It's for immediate things to handle now, not for continual use about such and sundry and things beyond my control.  Allowing fret to worry my mind infects my attitude and my outlook, shadows of ghosts of harms which will never come about.  It never stops.  So I don't play that game. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy  Today's Meditation III: "Weren't the only thing he said. Most time, a man will tell you his bad intentions if you listen, let yourself hear." ~ Charley Waite, Open Range  

In stillness, at peace  Paddling beneath the surface. In stillness, action. Daily Stoic I: Idle minds are the devil's workshop, right?  A life of improvement, studying the old sages to meliorate my thoughts and guide me to a satisfied life, would be nice.  Not having to spend time working on someone else's plans so I can pursue my own?  Wonderbar!  So why, when given a taste of a life like that, do I waste so much time on frivolous shite like bad movies or unfunny, uninspiring, unintelligent nonsense? I understand setting down my books to create a memory, doing something that will create an experience I can use to grow my soul, deepen my relationships, or touch the face of god.  These are times when I'm exchanging one form of philosophy for another, not laying it aside  in toto  and frittering away some minutes of my life.  For the rest of it, however, I should use my time better.  Daily Stoic II: Whose slave am I?  Let's start smal...

Today I celebrate 20 years with my amazing friend and lover.  I am constantly still crazy eternally in love with you.  Crazy loving you  Sing! La Vita Nuova! My new life in you.

Ducks on the surface,  Serene atop, grace floats by.  Furious below.  Daily Stoic: Premeditatio Malorum .  Consider evil. Think through the evils that may befall me.  Consider the misfortunes I may encounter. But be realistic about it. In fact, being realistic about what pitfalls and dangers lie in my path is the whole point, isn't it?  Oh no! What will I do if my house is destroyed by a meteor?!?!  While it's not too unlikely that my house may someday be unlivable, the how isn't important. No need to imagine a meteor or a plane crash or what have you. It's the results of the event that concern me, and my actions after, that are paramount. I don't do this often enough, but I have made some progress. I more easily cast aside minor irritations and harms than I used to.  Much more easily.   (It impresses me how little forethought it takes to make me more resilient, more phlegmatic when faced with picayune problems.) I continue ...

Drowsy day crawls by. Rolling clouds across thoughts float Formed slowly and sane. Daily Stoic: I don't know that I'll ever master it to the point that it's always automatic, but I've managed to train myself to bypass re action  in favor of purposeful  action  when facing many of my day-to-day challenges. Teaching my reason to control my emotions and my bad mental habits is slow going.  I've made progress, but there's still a long way to go. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra Today's Poem: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lines Written in Early Spring , Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems (1798) Daily Shakespeare: Sonnet 73

Playful ideas tease Flying 'round my mind, whirling Dancing, paying heed.   Daily Stoic: How routinely am I challenged by circumstances and I take it personally?  Rather than rationally accepting reality as it is or looking for an opportunity in difficulty or telling myself ". . . so what?" and moving on, how often do I grow resentful and petulant and delay getting on with life so I can uselessly pout and let the whole world know that it hurt my feelings? Too damned often. It's one of those things I need to work on: eliminating (or at least minimizing) the time between when I become aware of a problem and when I let the immediate emotions pass through me so I can do the next right thing. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: "The unexamined life worth living." A phrase I learned so, so long ago and am only now realizing its depth. Today's Poem: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Harlot's House  in The Dramatic Review , April 11, 1885 (vol. 1, ...

Wand'ring 'round the day, Vapor rises from the grass. Dancing through the mist. Daily Stoic: Keeping calm under pressure.  Am I doing well if I rarely feel pressure?  Is the lack of pressure because I arrange my life that way, because I'm lucky, because I've internalized Stoic lessons about not taking things too seriously and not to worry about things I cannot control?  Some combination of these? Does that mean I will buckle when faced with a tough challenge?  Shmaybe . . . but I have been challenged before and either come through victorious, unharmed, or, at least, losing but not defeated. Can I do it again?  Probably.  I hope so.  All I can do is be as prepared as I can. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Poem: An old favorite. I need to go back and relearn this. 

Bah! I got nothing. No images or ideas. Clever words run dry.  Daily Stoic: Life often takes a grace and flexibility I lack.  The dancer's agility, a talent I wish I had, escapes me.  If I use that as my metaphor, I'll be hard put.   A wrestler's power and strategy, tactics and determination and use of sudden action, however, are closer to my natural gifts. I must train myself to be accept reality more readily and to allow my will to flow with the Tao or, as the Stoics would put it, "in accordance with Nature." These are areas in which I can progress if I listen.  Nature and my nature and my soul will tell me the way.  They will show me how to embrace life  as it is and overcome the obstacles that deny my way. More like combat than entertainment. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Consolation Letter to his Wife by Plutarch Let us learn from those who have come before.  Stand on their shoulders and learn. Today's Mediation III:

Turgid prose. Bad words.  Names for any other rose Still rot like bad thoughts.  Daily Stoic: Correcting course when I am mistaken is proper.  Stubborn dedication to a plan, despite contrary facts, is ignorant and all too common instead.  I cannot guess how many times I've continued on because I have been unable to shift to a better course because my intentions got stuck. My ego, or my biases or my ignorance or any of the myriad faults I hoard, block me from either admitting my error or from seeing the correction in the first place.  Today's Meditation: "It's a learning process. And if it's not a learning process, you're doing it wrong," me to my child yesterday morning.  I try to teach them that everything can be a learning opportunity if you let it. It's a matter of looking for the lesson, thinking it through, and acting on the analysis.  Now to learn how to change my mind when circumstances demand.  Today's Meditation II: ...