We keep but short shrift,  Death wasting before rebirth.  It's never the same.  Daily Stoic: What I have is only on loan. I do not get to keep it.  Let this cup pass me by.  I'm sorry, J_______.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Daily Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale , Act 4 Scene 3 

Train! Work! Practice! Do!  Inevitably, like tides, My do doth stumble. Daily Stoic: Again with the impressions. Sheesh! You'd think they were important.  Perhaps Epictetus' emphasis on impressions, and his warnings about assenting to them, are something I should take to heart....  Nothing may be harder than to tame the wild presentations brought to me by Nature. But nothing more rewarding when I may accomplish it.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II:

*.  For when I'm late with the post.  Now you'll always know.  (Yes, this is a haiku, a bad one, when read properly.)  Daily Stoic: If I'm satisfied with what Nature has provided, I will always be fulfilled.  If I want what is not provided, I will always be looking beyond the horizon, never making it there.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Daily Shakespeare: Richard III , Act 5 Scene 5

They're never as good,  Morning thoughts in the night time.  But we try now, too.  Daily Stoic: Slow and steady wins the race  (One of my fathers favorite sayings when I was young.)  I'll do better if I keep calm and carry on,. Do the things I need do. Do things that promote social cohesion.  Don't borrow trouble. (A favorite of my mother's.) Focus on now. Do what I need do, now. Don't worry and fret about things that may or may not happen. (Things not under our control, per Epictetus.)  Both, ideas captured in Marcus' quote today.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II:

Anxiety melts — Snow on the eaves in the sun — As calm approaches. Daily Stoic: Misconceptions cloud my reality.  Things mistaken for that which they are not.  Imagined slights.  Dangers perceived but which don't exist. Clearing my thoughts will clear my way, making living according to Nature possible in ways it hasn't been before. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II:

Words words file around Swirling down to distant drains.  Harrumph! Hardyhar. Daily Stoic: So, er . . . PAY ATTENTION!  It'll be so much better if I do.  Wisdom is a subgoal. I gotta remember that. The goal is eudaimonia , satisfaction and fulfillment. Happiness is, generally, a by-product.  To get there, I pursue 4 primary subgoals: Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Temperance.  These allow me to live in accordance with Nature and find eudaimonia .  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Daily Shakespeare: Sonnet 29

O'erpleasing things,  As waters o'erflowing bounds,  Left for troubles brought.  Daily Stoic: I must guard against unpleasant and unvirtuous impressions. Prevent myself from assenting to them, catastrophizing about them.  I must be vigilant around pleasure, as well, lest I allow myself to be swept away into vice by excess and imprudence.  It's a minor form of premeditatio malorum , a conscious prediction of the negative effects of giving myself over to the temptation.  As Donald Robertson, Stoic and psychotherapist, puts it, "Stoic 'functional analysis'" from CBT to help.  Will eating that ice cream increase my happiness?  I'll get the fleeting pleasure of the taste, a pleasure that fades the instant it leaves my tongue. Then....? It's gone. Wow. Five to thirty seconds of sensation in my mouth and in my mind. Yippee. Repeated 25 times until the bowl is empty.  On the other hand, later my blood sugar will spike. My stom...

A pet, a partner,  A companion through the times,  Cats cannot compose.  Daily Stoic: My perceptions color my world. To be of value, I must assent to these perceptions.  Therefore, if I let my perceptions run wild, assenting to everything that appears before my mind, I will be granting  everything import.  To progress toward wisdom, I need to understand the my perceptions are just that: images and ghosts of things and events. They are not the things in themselves.  Better to describe things in simplest terms, adding nothing so far as I am able to do so. The closer I am to objectively description the less I have to sift through and discard to determine the right path.  My car is damaged. Not oh God oh God my car is totaled and I won't be able to go to work and this is the worst thing that could happen to me right now!  I am ill. Not oh no this is the bad COVID I'm going to die or have to be on ventilator or go bankrupt . . . especi...

Slave and master, in Perpetual combat for Control of my soul.  Daily Stoic: Will I be a slave to my passions today? Or will I be their master?  Will I prepare myself? Consider the ways I can avoid anger or envy or lust?  What kind of people will I meet today? Busybodies? The jealous? The frustrated? The greedy? The lazy?  What's my plan?  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Meditation III: