The end of a month Calls melancholy to play. Many acts today. Daily Stoic: Following Nature, using my natural Reason to guide me, offers both active and passive rewards.  Actively, it allows me to navigate difficult situations with less trouble and more consistent success than if I were to give my emotional reactions to events free rein.  Passively, it provides a baseline from which my life can proceed more easily to happiness, resolution, capable decisions, loyal relations, and much more. When I follow my emotional impulses, it rarely ends well.  Hasty assumptions, conflict caused by misunderstanding, hurt feelings, even just simple errors of fact catch me by surprise because I am operating without guidance: I am re act ing instead of act ing. Time to act better. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Mediation III: 

A week flashed by Like scales in a riverbed  Work comes tomorrow.    Daily Stoic: Deal with it. Don't gripe or complain or whine about it. Either deal with it or get off my ass and change it.  Pissing and moaning has never helped a damn thing.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Meditation III:

Well-written response  Saved and saved and saved and . . . gone Into the aether.    Daily Stoic: I can either help or remain silent.  If I try to fix the problem, I may do so and the problem goes away. Or maybe I work it out with the other person and we discover the problem wasn't really a problem. Or maybe it doesn't work and I learn a new thing to eliminate when faced with a problem such as this.  Or maybe I just "never miss a good opportunity to shut up" and life goes on without my interference.  As Pompidou said, "The graveyards are full of indepensible men."  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Meditation III: Daily Shakespeare: Sonnet 116

Roles played, parts complete Scenes rolled forth upon the stage.  Curtain. Bravo. Next!    Daily Stoic: Do I keep my social scene in order? Forgoing bad influences for good? Seeking out those who will improve me and show me better ways?  I do surround myself with quality folks, having figured out a long time ago that I didn't want to waste my time with unworthy people. It took several hard trials for me to figure this out, but the lesson eventually stuck. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Pirsig:

Comparison harms The buck cares not who you are. The river flows on.    Daily Stoic: I am no poorer than Croeses. I am no richer than St. Francis.  I am no dumber than Bacon. I am no smarter than Cyclops.  I am no younger than Methuselah.  I am no older than Pippa. I am no wiser nor kinder nor nicer than my neighbors. In the grand scheme of things, I am the same as my fellows.  Accepting this changes my focus.  I need not compare myself to others. Nor need I consider myself a thing apart. I must see and consider my place in relation to all.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Pirsig: ------ Daily Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost | Act 2 Scene 1

Thank you for coming.  We've got a great event planned.  Thoughts to cure my soul.    Daily Stoic: Find the way to view the problem that allows you to benefit from it.  I am thankful for: My aching wrist ; it reminds me to take it easy  Traveling for Thanksgiving ; it lets me see people important to me  Allergies ; they remind me that the rest of my health is pretty good Children making too much noise ; they are alive and happy and with me Traffic ; it reminds me that deadlines are arbitrary and whenever we get there will be fine  Memories ; I've had a good life so far  Old towns ; they remind me that when new opportunities arise, I should take them Loss ; it reminds me my loved ones can be taken from me in an instant and I must love them while I may Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II:

Cheer and family Setting tones for holi days.  Thanks for all I have.    Daily Stoic: Memento Mori .  Literally, in this case. Those are the actual words the aide would say in the general's ear during the triumph.  Mortales sunt.  Things in my life are "mortal" as well.  Objects. Situations. People. They could be gone in a moment — perhaps gently; perhaps jarringly — but gone nonetheless.  I've failed this test before.  What need I do to prepare?  Frequent reminders are a beginning. What else?  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Meditation III: Today's Meditation IV :

Plunk. Stone into water. Plink. Drop lands in the ocean. Plank. Infinite time.   Daily Stoic: Do I have attachments?  Expectations of myself, my self, my role, other people, a job, a place, a lifestyle?  Do I allow these assumptions to influence my satisfaction?  Do I thwart my own plans by holding these things up as important, helpful, necessary, or, in some other form or fashion, something I should be concerned with? If I learn to limit myself to placing importance only on those things I can control, my internal states, I can find happiness and fulfillment. If I insist on valuing these external things, I will find disappointment and ruin. Time to be better. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Mediation III:

A dog waits, aware.  A fish swims, cool water run.  I recline. It is right.    Daily Stoic: Premeditatio Malorum . If I expect to lose a thing, a person, a reason, I can say, "Of course." when it moves on to its next place to be.  Today's Mediation:

Zepp'lin on my mind. Opening chords, beats, magic.  Sorcerers create.    Daily Stoic: It's a threshold event? Once you are wise, you hit the mark and can revel in the knowledge that you are one of the elect, the wise?  I'm missing something here. I need to think about this more deeply.  Today's Meditation: Daily Shakespeare: Sonnet 33

Crafting? Musing? Play?  What to call expanded forms?  I will call them Murray ....    Daily Stoic: Plus ça change .....  It's happened before. Pretty much exactly as it happened this time. Pretty much exactly as it will happen again later.  What is it ? All human interaction. Any human event, decision, scheme, or hope.  There's nothing new under the sun, right?  Offering comfort and frustration in equal measure.  Why do I continue to consider my life special?  I am unique. No one's ever been as ______ as I am.  Woe is me. Yeah. Right.  I'm special, but not special. Worthy of respect as human, worthy of praise or castigation per my behavior, yes, but not different in form or habits than any of the 108BB who've come before me.  Something I may feel is the best thing ever, someone else has seen a thousand times.  Act like you done it before.  Why do I indulge harmful emotions and reactions and opinions to events uncountable people have survived and, more,

A year of study, Contemplating my navel . . . Better for it?  Yes! Daily Stoic: A year ago, I started this journal with just the barest summarization of some things I read that day .  Here is the complete content of that post: Through the year, my usual format has expanded to include: a starting haiku — as a mental exercise a commentary like this one — usually inspired by  The Daily Stoic  by Ryan Holiday some mediations — most often from the Sekirin and Cockrell translations of  Tolstoy's  A Calendar of Wisdom , but other sources appear as well another entry or two — usually some  Daily Shakespeare and / or a poignant bit from my current read Since then I've learned many things, practiced thoughtfulness and Stoic virtue, failed often, succeeded often, and generally tried to be a better person. My only regret is that I waited so long in my life to begin this process.  Seeing how much progress I've made in a single year, I can hardly imagine what my life would be like had

Stress, pissing me off.  Slow lanes. Annoying voices.  All out to get me.  Daily Stoic: Holy crap have I been in a mood lately. Days and days of every . single . thing . in. the.   fucking.   universe.  pissing me off.  Rude people. Bad drivers. Forgetful friends. Jerk coworkers. Broken stuff. Fucked up technology. Thwarted plans. Overpriced crap. Error-laden bills. Labyrinthian telephone mazes. Slow internet. Stupid shows. Pens that won't write. Checkout lines that don't move. Stores that are don't have what I want.  To go food orders that are missing items.  Apps that won't run right.   Eighteen.   fucking . miles . of almost standstill traffic. I seriously need to relax.  And meditate on Marcus' #4 above.  Amor fati.  Time to be better.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: