Two paths diverged in A woods of lost, hidden ways.  Still, I find an end.  Daily Stoic: The reason people misunderstand this idea, I think, is that they think it will always mean you are still able to achieve your initial goal. That's not what Marcus and the other Stoics are trying to teach here.  While I may often be able to adapt and still accomplish what I set out to do, it is at least equally likely that I will need to shift my aim to a different goal.  If my plane is delayed, arriving on time is likely unachievable. Since reality seldom breaks physics in my favor, I may need to reconceive it as a chance to think it through and find the best possible outcome to a suboptimal situation.  I could also switch my goal to practicing patience and acceptance of circumstances, cultivating these aspects of virtue.  It's about mindset and flexibility, not about always reaching the same finish line.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II

Always try. Always. Broken slabs of ice floe slow.  And I fail often.  Daily Stoic: It's useful to remind myself that these are the words of the most powerful person in the world , lecturing himself. He was trying to make himself better when, of all people, he had no need. He could have been the biggest asshole on the planet and suffered few or no consequences.  Instead, he deliberately, and with virtue aforethought, set out to be the best person he could be.  WTF is my excuse?  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Eclogue for piano and strings, op. 10 by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) Daily Shakespeare: Henry VIII, Prologue

Written or spoken?  Shapes in fog of sensation,  Communication.  Daily Stoic: Castigation and self-flagellation have never made much sense to me. That doesn't mean I have been spared the depths of self-loathing humans are prone to, it just means that I am also prone to ridiculing such episodes when they have passed.  And it means that I am, in general, less likely to fall prey to them now as I learn better how to accept reality and move on rather than look for someone to blame.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Nasty, Brutish, and Short, Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids by Scott Hershovitz  Today's Music: Lavender Field by Karen Tanaka  Daily Shakespeare: King Lear , Act 3 Scene 2

Brisket's better now,  A food ripens to harvest,  Three days was enough.  Daily Stoic: About 6 weeks ago, I crunched my car into the gate on our driveway. A slow crash caused by optical illusion and improper attention, I knew it would cost quite a bit to fix.  Did I curse? No. Did I complain? No. Did I rant and rave and take it out on those nearby? No.  My reaction would not change the situation. Reality was that I fucked up and it was going to cost me time and several thousand dollars to fix it. What my reasoned action, on the other hand, could do is turn this into a teaching situation for my kids (and myself).  So that's what I did. I acted calmly and rationally and made the best I could of it.  A far cry from how I'd have re acted even just a year or so ago.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Meditation III: Today's Music: Bring us, O Lord God by William Henry Harris (1883-1973)

Habitual vice,  As termites eating the walls,  Reverse course! Shore up!  Daily Stoic: Whatever I'm doing allowed this disagreeable habit to take root in my life. Using the same behaviors that brought me to this point is not the answer.  Perhaps reversing how I think about the problem will give me the insight or the gumption to make the change.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Sinfonietta, 1: Allegretto - Allegro - Maestoso  (0:00 - 2:23) by Leoš Janáček Daily Shakespeare: Richard III , Act 3 Scene 4

Smoking brisket rests,  Blooming at the chosen time To diners' delight.  Daily Stoic: If I accept the world as it comes, and avoid assenting to judgments beyond the bare facts of the situation, I can find myself prepared for anything that comes.   Amor fati . Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Meditation III: Today's Music: Sicilianne  by Maria Theresia von Paradis  Daily Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 2 Scene 1 My kids and I are reading How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. This is the first passage they are examining and memorizing. 

Peace, freedom, and death.  All things come in due season,  Worry less. Do more.  Daily Stoic: Peace is the goal. Peace and freedom. Make peace with others and between others. Offer them any help I can in finding the peace of wise freedom.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: The Silver Swan by Orlando Gibbons Daily Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream , Act 3 Scene 2

Why wait? Why dawdle?  Spring come soon enough for life,  Live my end goals now.  Daily Stoic: There was one Cineas, a Thessalian, considered to be a man of very good sense, a disciple of the great orator Demosthenes, who, of all that were famous at that time for speaking well, most seemed, as in a picture, to revive in the minds of the audience the memory of his (Demosthenes’) force and vigour of eloquence; and being always about Pyrrhus, and sent about in his service to several cities, he verified the saying of Euripides, that– As much as trenchant blades, in mighty hands may do. So much can skill of eloquence, achieve and conquer too. And therefore Pyrrhus would often say that Cineas had won him more towns with his eloquence than he himself had done by the sword: for which he did greatly honour and employ him in all his chief affairs. This person, seeing Pyrrhus eagerly preparing for these wars of Italy, led him one day when he was at leisure into the following reasonings: “

Mists inside and out  Fog slipping between the trees Hard to know bearings.  Daily Stoic: Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again. If at first you don't succeed, reexamine your premises, adapt, adjust, try again.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Scaramouche for two pianos op. 165b 3: 'Brazileira' (Mouvement do samba) by Darius Milhaud Daily Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream , Act 2 Scene 1

Tired. Twisted in knots. Rapids swirling within me. Maybe go home soon? Daily Stoic: But why does walking in nature help?  There are still plenty of distractions, albeit usually pleasant.  Is it the activity?  The (relative, or at least, different kind of) quiet?  The difference in surroundings?  Why would the plant in the trees not affect me the same way the plant in my room or my office affects me? Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Mercy by Max Richter

We go into the  Locker room of life, heads high  But smelling so bad.  Daily Stoic: I've not always been calm. Recently, thankfully, it's become more prevelant. I guess they're right when they say getting older tends to take the edge off, making me focused and less reactive in stressful situations.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: 27 Pieces for Viola da gamba: Prelude by Charles Friedrich Abel  Daily Shakespeare: Sir Thomas Moore , Scene 6