Sleep comes along too  Soon for contemplative  Baby steps. Tiny.  Daily Stoic: " No matter where you go, there you are ." ~ Buckaroo Bonzai   What's the common element everywhere I go? Who is present every time I am dissatisfied or frustrated or bored? When I want to escape, what's the one thing I can never get away from?  Rather than trying to escape, trying to get away from troubles by going somewhere, better to cultivate my Inner Citadel — that calm, safe place within myself where I can be secure and reflect on my life.  Seneca puts it this way (Letters from a Stoic, XVIII): "Getting away from it all" does me no good if bringing myself along ruins any chance I have of finding peace.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Piano Trio no. 1 in D minor, op. 49 2: Andante con molto tranquillo by Felix Mendelssohn Daily Shakespeare: As You Like It , Act 5 Scene 3

West wind returns. Bright Spring coming close on its heels! Reborn life returns.  Daily Stoic: “Of course I deprecate war, but if it is brought to my door the bringer will find me at home.” ~ James Garfield Don't wish for conflict but rise to it if it comes.  In the meantime, work against it. Strive to end it, or better, prevent it before it begins.  Help people understand that THEY are not threatened by the other guy. Some powerful assholes want something. Some other powerful assholes want it, too. Then they use the mechanisms of the State to delude normal folks into fighting for them.  No war is necessary. All war is avoidable if the majority of people tell the powerful assholes, " You got a problem? You fix it. We're not going to die for your fucking ambitions ."  Today's Meditation: Hush little baby, don't say a word ...  I always hated that rhyme. That and The Giving Tree .  They teach not unconditional love. They teach unf...

The river flows on,  Heedless of my instructions.  Acceptance is key.  Daily Stoic: There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. I've quoted it before, because it's so perfectly a propos . If I deem something harmless, I am unharmed, no matter the situation . My arm may be broken or my bank account drained, my job lost or my friend gone, if I take it with serenity, I am unharmed.  Would I prefer that things were different? Well, they are not. Now I have a choice to make.  What reactions do I respect? When someone deals with adversity with calm and tranquility, that person has done well; they have performed as well as anyone can under difficult circumstances. We someone reacts overly dramatically, allowing their emotions to bloom beyond what is appropriate, they have done poorly, difficult circumstances notwithstanding.   Which would I emulate, were I to step back and make a deliberate, reasoned choice?  By learni...

Weekends seem ever — Cold water falling from skies — Too drenched to comfort.  Daily Stoic: My mind generates trouble all day. Perceptions, false  perceptions, of hardship or malice or anger or envy or a host of other emotions just itching to complicate my life.  Work isn't overwhelming. My emotional judgment of it is that it is overwhelming.  My coworker isn't unreasonable. My emotional judgment of them is that they are unreasonable.  I project and judge things beyond the immediate impression. "Borrowing trouble," as my mother says.  Time to be better.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Polonaise de Concert No. 1 in D major, Opus 4 by Henryk Wieniawski

See the mirror dark, Stars refusing to reflect Surface means need depth. Daily Stoic: Beauty is better than skin deep, if I live a beautiful life.   I've long divorced my self-identity from my job (something I heartily recommend!) and have thought of myself instead as a combination of my relationships (familial, Platonic, professional) and my hobbies. This offers me a new way to see myself: I am the sum of my choices, my actions. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Nocturne no 5 in B flat major  by John Field  Daily Shakespeare: Hamlet , Act 1 Scene 5

Hold sacred our minds, Hold fast on rocks in the stream. Hold on. Hold. Hold. HOLD! Daily Stoic: There's a notion of permanence in the idea of holding.  A steadfastness of purpose and action which may guide me . . . if I participate.   And that's the rub, right?  Taking a leaping dive into a deep and dangerous stream , finding a sturdy rock and fastening my ties, saving my life and then helping others. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: String Quintet in C major op.163 D.956(II.Adagio)  by Franz Schubert 

Time, now, only, fin.  Flying though the air, soaring To uncharted lands.  Daily Stoic: I have today and no more. I have one life and no more. The past is gone. The future unoromised. Memento mori .  So why do I live so much of my life in places that both do not exist and which, even if they did, would not belong to me?  Wishing for yesterday. I do this often. My one true regret in life happened twelve years ago and I would give the world to have him back. I have yet to accept the fact as a Stoic should.  So instead, I use it. Tempest fugit . I hug my children closer. I try not to begrudge the story at bedtime. I look for ways to connect and also for garbage time to spend without expectations.  My future is what it will be, if it comes at all. I make plans for my loved ones, but not for myself.  For myself, I try to focus on today and being better. Today. That's the part I don't put off.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditat...

Dancing . . . dancing . . . twirl!  Spiders weaving silhouettes Emotions flying!  Daily Stoic: What I already know, I cannot learn.  Let me be humble instead.  Let my true vision see where I do well and where I fall short. Let me avoid errors and self-delusion, finding instead accurate measures of my ability.  Then I can correctly decide where to put my efforts.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Tarantella, la Carpinese  (traditional)  Daily Shakespeare: Julius Caesar , Act 2 Scene 1

Pride goeth before,  Leaves pushed before the fell flood,  Before pride I fall.  Daily Stoic: Nature had a purpose beyond my ken. When I forget this, I become confused should plans not turn out as I would wish.  Today's Meditation: Pride in something I did not do? Foolishness. In something I inherited or which was thrown at me by Fate or Luck? Poppycock.  May as well take credit for things which will happen millenia from now as be proud that I am accidentally my race or a citizen where I was born.  Today's Meditation II:  I heard a homily today about pride and penance, privation without purpose.  Many people "fast" for religious purposes during the year. Often, unfortunately, they do it wrong.  I'm missing X.  I don't like it. I'm punishing myself. I am giving it up to make God happy. God wants me to be miserable because somehow that makes him happy.  This gets it backward, putting body before spirit. If we l...

Roads stretch ever on Radiant Sun on the edge.  We trek to unknown.  Daily Stoic: No one does wrong willingly. They are ignorant of what would be right for if they knew what were right, that is what they would do.  No one cares about me. No one in the general public, that is. The guy in the car who cut me off? He doesn't know I exist. I'm an NPC to him. A hundred to one says he didn't see me in the first place. Had he known I was there, he'd have acted differently.  The lady who gave me the Look because she thought I was too close to her on purpose? She didn't realize that when she stopped short her 120 lbs., my (significantly) heavier body takes more distance; there was literally nothing I could do to avoid running into her. Had she thought of that, she'd have known I wasn't a masher, but that physics wouldn't let the outcome be different than it was. If I change my perspective, removing myself from the Center of the Universe , I will see t...

The music holds me Passions of heat in midday  Dance the Mamushka !  Daily Stoic: I am free so long as I am beholden to my conscience only. If I place import on only those things within my control, my judgments about the world, nothing can harm me. Nothing can challenge my virtue.  When I pursue indifferents, transforming them into desires, I am enslaved to Fortune as she doles out merit according to her whims.  Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Libertango by Astor Piazzolla Also, Theme from Interstellar by Hans Zimmer  as played by self-taught amateur pianist Ella at St. Pancras International .

Sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older.  Short of breath. One day closer to death.  Daily Stoic: Find myself a Cato, a role model who demonstrates the best of virtue and serves as a True North to guide my actions.  Letters from a Stoic (same letter) Someone to sit on my shoulder and admonish me when I am tempted to, or actually do, do something against virtue, something not in accord with Nature.  My wife.  My father.  My mother.  My friends. I have several to emulate.  And I love it. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) in C Minor, Op. 20  by Pablo de Sarasate Wow. 

Friends frolic in fields.  Deepening shadows bring night.  Fires? Lit! Dances? Danced!  Daily Stoic: I am like my friends? I hope so. They are good people. People who lead by example and for whom I have great respect. I have chosen few and wisely. Today's Meditation: Today's Meditation II: Today's Music: Violin Concerto, op. 14 2: Andante by Samuel Barber Daily Shakespeare: The Rape of Lucrece | Lines 1069–78