Dear, dear, sweet reader,  I owe you one blog entry.  Signed, Yours, the Student  And now, time is here. Thoughts flowed like raging rivers. In this page for you. Daily Stoic: Recognizing those traits I share with others, especially those which I hold in disdain and wish not to see in them, resets my point of view when dealing with them.  I do this.  They do this.  While not what I wish, it's all part of human nature. I will try to do better.  I will try to help others do better.  And I will accept it and work with it as I continue in my pursuit of good character and right action. Today's Meditation: Today's Music: Goyescas Suite 1: 'Les requiebros' — 'Compliments'  (to 9:35) by Enrique Granados Daily Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream , Act 5 Scene 1

Rassafrackin' humph!  Consarnit goldurn varmint!  I haaaaaates that rabbit!  Daily Stoic: If I must needs do a thing, I should do it freely and willingly. Now THERE'S a lesson I'm still working on . . . always acting with glad heart.  I'm much better at it now than I was in the past, but I still find myself grumbling and grousing more than I should. At least it's now usually sotto voce and I don't complain to others as much as I did.  Still, always progress to be made.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Serenade for Strings in E flat major, op. 6, 3. Adagio - Piu andante - Tempo 1 by Josef Suk Daily Shakespeare: Sonnet 5

What do I want? More!  Peck upon bushel of more!  How miserable.  Daily Stoic: I will not miss what I do not want. Want less, be happier. This leads to less anxiety, less envy, less effort necessary to fulfill those things I ( consciously ) decide to want. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Serenade for strings in E major, op. 22, 3: Scherzo: Vivace  by Antonín Dvořák Daily Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew , Act 5 Scene 1

Counting coins, half found Treasures buried in habits.  Make. Gather. Enjoy.  Daily Stoic: Wealth is a preferred indifferent. If it doesn't harm my character, there's no reason wealth is bad. Obtained morally, go for it.  But the temptation to make exceptions just this one time may become irresistible. Often better to avoid the circumstances of potential failure than to trust my will and habits to keep me on the straight and narrow.  Today's Meditation: Today's Music: Guaracha: Ay que mes abraso - I'm ablaze with love by Juan García de Zéspedes Daily Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale , Act 2 Scene 2

The world spins right 'round,  Currents pushing this way, that,  At all of it, laugh.  Daily Stoic: I'd rather laugh than cry at the world. So I do. That makes me happier.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Meditation III: Today's Music: 'Deep River' from 24 Negro Melodies op. 59 no. 10  by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Setbacks and u-turns,  Switchbacks and bends, course changes Lead to new pastures. Daily Stoic: Stoicism is meant to be practical. To take life as it is, with a glad heart, and, if necessary, nothing else.  I got a (very minor) chance to practice this today in traffic on the way home from the airport.  Laugh, smile, and just roll with it. Take it as a chance to be patient and accept the inconvenience with grace. And enjoy talking to my relatives (who just flew in) for a bit longer than I would have otherwise have been able.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Set Me as a Seal by Nico Muhly

I would I could stop,  Miles to go before I sleep.  Kidding. Off to bed!  Daily Stoic: "You don't need to be a prisoner of dead old men who stopped learning two thousand years ago." ~ Ryan's Holiday Principles adapts to new facts or are supplanted. We know more facts than they did. We can apply their principles to these to the same effect as they did to the issues of their time. If we cannot, either we're doing it wrong or we need better principles.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein Daily Shakespeare: Othello , Act 1 Scene 3

Source of small rivers — To torrents rushing through fords — Fountainhead of Truth. Daily Stoic: But now I ought to close my letter. "What?" you say; "shall it come to me without any little offering?" Be not afraid; it brings something, – nay, more than something, a great deal. For what is more noble than the following saying of which I make this letter the bearer: "It is wrong to live under constraint; but no man is constrained to live under constraint." Of course not. On all sides lie many short and simple paths to freedom; and let us thank God that no man can be kept in life. We may spurn the very constraints that hold us. "Epicurus," you reply, "uttered these words; what are you doing with another's property?" Any truth, I maintain, is my own property. And I shall continue to heap quotations from Epicurus upon you, so that all persons who swear by the words of another, and put a value upon the speaker and not upon the thing...

Whiskey's wonderful Reward for a life well lived,  Until the morning....  Daily Stoic: The punishment for overindulgence, of whatever kind, is ill humor and physical ailment later. I borrow happiness from tomorrow and tomorrow is lessened for my withdrawal.  Enjoy pleasures in moderation. Temperance is a cardinal virtue for a reason.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Beau soir - Beautiful Evening by Claude Debussy Daily Shakespeare: Cymbeline , Act 4 Scene 2

Waiting, practicing  The snow melts so, so slowly Patience. It will come.  Daily Stoic: Focus on what matters. Ignore or minimize the rest. Fin .  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: 'La fleur que tu m'avais jetée' - 'The flower that you threw to me' from Carmen by Georges Bizet Daily Shakespeare: Richard III , Act 5 Scene 4 

Today is enough.  The moment drops on water.  Now, now is enough.  Daily Stoic: Who among you can add one hour to your life by worrying? Or, as my mother put it, "Why borrow trouble?"  Today's Meditation: Today's Music: G Spot Tornado by Frank Zappa

Be like Romans in Rome, Adjusting to the seasons. New things old approach.  Daily Stoic: Sometimes it is useful to feign strong emotions, pretending to be irate with someone without letting that anger touch my heart and influence my actions. Such window dressing can send a message that you insist on / utterly refuse certain things when your interlocutor isn't responding to calmer rationality.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor, op. 18, 2: Adagio sostenuto by Sergei Rachmaninov

Spray sounds from outside Sunshine on water in air Choose drops to follow.  Daily Stoic: Eliminating the unnecessary. So simple to say. So hard to do.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Légende by Georges Enescu Daily Shakespeare: Othello , Act 1 Scene 3

A foolish consis- tency is the hobgoblin of little minds. This lil blog of mine,  Imma gonna let it shine,  Should a haiku rhyme?  Little Miss Muffey Sat on her little tuffey,  What a grand tuffey 'twas.  Daily Stoic: Sorry. Used all my words on the haiku today. I'll think tomorrow . . . .  Just kidding. (Besides, many of the words up there aren't mine anyway.)  Choose my battles. Choose fewer. Fewer. Put some back.  Sometimes, discretion IS the better part of valor.  Unless my character is in peril, I should try to avoid those contests where my chances are slim or where the result is unimportant.  If it won't make a difference, why spend my energy in its pursuit? I have better things to do.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Symphony no. 35 in D major, K. 385 ('Haffner'), 1: Allegro con spirito by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Daily Shakespeare: Richard II, Act 3 Scene 4