Stoic Weekends
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.36
“Do not let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Do not try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, ‘Why is this so unbearable? Why can I not endure it?’ You will be embarrassed to answer.
Then remind yourself that past and future have no power over you. Only the present, and even that can be minimized. Just mark off its limits. And if your mind tries to claim that it cannot hold out against that … well, then, heap shame upon it.”
This writing is Certified Human
We get caught in the swells of life. The waters are not always calm. Storms arise, and the waves seem unceasing. They threaten to break our vessel apart and pull us under.
The shore or the edge of the storm is somewhere ahead. Until then, we wait and survive.
There are times when we can only do what is essential. To spend energy and emotion on what cannot be done is to carry weight we do not need.
In time, the waters will calm. We will then have time to attend to what troubles us now.
Release the weight. Be unburdened by what we cannot control or attend to. Use the energy we have to do what is within our power.
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