Long days, long nights, sleep.  Seasons as long as need be,  Caring for the needs.  Daily Stoic: I can be as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger and not accomplish a damn thing if my choice of activity is off point.  Half-effort on the right project is better than wearing myself out fighting through the wrong jungle .  Today's Meditation: Samanas, pronounced shá-ma-nas, are Hindu ascetics who live in the forest, own nothing, and beg for food.  Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse  Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Overture from Candide by Leonard Bernstein  Daily Shakespeare: Sonnet 86

Four ay emmmm. We go!  Help is on the way. We go!  Thanks, child, for the help.  Daily Stoic: I engage in what Holiday calls "the empty calories of life," the desuetude I fall into when I am bored, unchallenged, ennui-ed.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) Part 1: The Adoration of the Earth by Igor Stravinsky  Daily Shakespeare: A Lover's Complaint 

How many days I waste.  A planted field never reaped.  Time frittered away.  Daily Stoic: Be calm. Do right.  Easier if I apply it consistently. Habit begets habit.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: From  How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett  Today's Music: French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816, 7: Gigue  (at 15:04) by Johann Sebastian Bach Daily Shakespeare: NB:  Bates is right. Let he who hath the quarrel do the fighting. Others — by the hundreds, thousands, or millions — need not die for a rich man's greed, fear, pride, or "honor." It's never the king's (or president's or senator's or rep's) son who dies .  King Henry V , Act 4 Scene 1 

Dance into weekends, Some time before the return, But not long enough. Daily Stoic: Small habits my good character make.  Small steps my long journey overtake.  Joyous results await me if I can persevere. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 ('Organ') Poco adagio by Camille Saint-Saëns Daily Shakespeare: King John , Act 3 Scene 1

Love yourself. Listen, too. Like false dawn newly risen, Others aren't true you. Daily Stoic: Never take criticism from someone you would not turn to for advice. Today's Meditation: Today's Music: "Waitin' " from Cabaret Songs by William Bolcom Daily Shakespeare: The Tempest, Act 1 Scene 1

How now brown cow? Ow. What fat twat spat that at brat? Oh, for feck's sake. Stahp!  Daily Stoic: Do the right thing brings me joy. Perhaps not right away — hell, it may even cause me pain in the short term — but in the end, my life will be better for it and I the happier. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Milongo by Jorge Cardoso

Short but sweet. Three lines Broken up, five seven five Meter best unset  Daily Stoic: Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Form my character accordingly and I will find luck camping at my door. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor), 1: Allegro   by Ludwig van Beethoven  Daily Shakespeare: Twelfth Night , Act 3 Scene 2

Everyday comforts,  White blanket covering all,  Warmth. Quiet. Fulfilled.  Daily Stoic: And what if I lived my every day with purpose and drive? How much more life could I live if I were not lazy and undisciplined?  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Romance for Violin and Piano, op. 23 by Amy Beach

Thought I was all cool Five in one blow! Bam bam bam!  Hold your horses, dude.  Daily Stoic: Be good today. Simple, right? But temptation always finds me! It's like student loans guys or Scientologists. I can never get away!  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Au Gré des ondes – Along the waves 5: ‘Hommage à Bach’  (@7:16)  by Henri Dutilleux

Thirteen. Ten and three.  No phoenix from the ashes.  Who you'd be today....  Daily Stoic: Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: ‘Vesti la giubba’ – ‘Put on your costume’ from Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo Daily Shakespeare:

Read read read read read Live live always live live live  Live read live memor....  Daily Stoic: I read mostly Stoicism and sci-fi. I do love some classics (Moby Dick, The Scarlett Letter, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, Robert Browning's poetry, Catch - 22, The Inferno, a few Vonnegut, much Shakespeare, others I can't remember right now) and some not (examples escape me at the moment).  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Scherzo no. 2 in C minor, op. 14 by Clara Schumann Daily Shakespeare: King John, Act 2 Scene 1 

Hidden manuscripts Deep sea creatures that depths birth Create new stories. Daily Stoic: My Stoic principles must be exercised continually until they are automatically my first choice. Every reinforcement, positive and negative, builds up or breaks down my ability to act virtuously.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Symphony in C Minor: IV. Allegro maestoso  by Alice Mary Smith

Sparks flying overhead  Temporary stars that brighten.  Catch one if you can.  Daily Stoic: If I stick to the past or the future, I miss the now, nothing gets done, no progress is made, no duties honored.  Today's Meditation: Today's Music: Der Trunkene im Frühling (The Drunkard in Spring) from Das Lied von der Erde - The Song of the Earth by Gustav Mahler