August 31st Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Consider Your Failings Too"

"Whenever you take offense at someone's wrongdoing, immediately turn to your own similar failings, such as seeing money as a good, or pleasure, or a little fame - whatever form it takes. By thinking on this, you'll quickly forget your anger, considering also what compels them - for what else could they do? Or, if you are able, remove their compulsions."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.30

A couple of common themes with Marcus Aurelius, the combination of being resigned to meeting flawed people in every day (for what other kind of people are there?), and the recognition of the beam in one's own eye before worrying of the motes in the eyes of others . . .

August 30th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "When You Feel Lazy"

"Anything that must yet be done, virtue can do with courage and promptness. For anyone would call it a sign of foolishness for one to undertake a task with a lazy and begrudging spirit, or to push the body in one direction and the mind in another, to be torn apart by wildly divergent impulses."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 31.b-32

This speaks to me right now - I feel a distinct lack of motivation, probably as a result of battling a creeping depression that is trying to find any crack in my armor through which it can pierce me . . .

August 29th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Want Nothing = Have Everything"

"No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don't have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 123.3

Today's reading is meant to be about wealth and material things, but I find right now it is applicable to me mainly for things I find myself wanting, like more time, more help, fewer obligations, fewer stressors, etc. Since right now I really can't have any of the things I really want, I need to change my perspective and not want for things I cannot have, and use what I do have well.

August 28th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "The Opulent Stoic"

"The founder of the universe, who assigned to us the laws of life, provided that we should live well, but not in luxury. Everything needed for our well-being is right before us, whereas what luxury requires is gathered by many miseries and anxieties. Let us use this gift of nature and count it among the greatest things."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 119.15b

August 27th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Laugh, or Cry?"

"Hearclitus would shed tears whenever he went out in public - Democritus laughed. One saw the whole as a parade of miseries, the other of follies. And so, we should take a lighter view of things and bear them with an easy spirit, for it is more human to laugh at life than to lament it."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 15.2

If you don't know whether to laugh or cry, why not choose to laugh?

August 26th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Seeking Out Shipwrecks"

"I was shipwrecked before I even boarded . . . the journey showed me this - how much of what we have is unnecessary, and how easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things whenever it's necessary, never suffering the loss."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 87.1

This speaks to me very literally right now, as we declutter our house in preparation for a possible move to a new home - how much of what we have is unnecessary! How easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things!

August 25th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Respect the Past, But Be Open to the Future"

"Won't you be walking in your predecessors' footsteps? I surely will use the older path, but if I find a shorter and smoother way, I'll blaze  a trail there. The ones who pioneered these paths aren't our masters, but our guides. Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn't been monopolized."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 33.11

August 24th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "Pillage from All Sources"

"I'll never be ashamed to quote a bad writer with a good saying."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 11.8

Take wisdom wherever it may be found. Seneca quoted Epicurus often, and he was far from Epicurean in philosophy - but he had to admit, Epicurus had a way with words, and sometimes made great sense.

August 23rd Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - "It's In Your Self-Interest"

"Therefore, explain why a wise person shouldn't get drunk - not with words, but by the facts of its ugliness and offensiveness. It's most easy to prove that so-called pleasures, when they go beyond proper measure, are but punishments."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 83.27

The best appeal is not to reason or to virtue, but to self-interest . . . and what is in one's self-interest is usually in accord with reason and virtue . . .

August 22nd Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

"It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won't tire and give up, if you aren't busying yourself with lesser things beyond what should be allowed."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.32b

Holiday and Hanselman reference the book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff . . . And It's All Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. I've never read it, but I have read Marcus Aurelius (many times), so I'm guessing that I'm doing all right.

This is usually one of my strengths, though not for the last month. I don't think my obsession with what I've lost was sweating "small stuff" - as Holiday and Hanselman note, it's about not wasting your most precious resource - time - and that is precisely what I feel is being wasted, and what I've lost. But . . . I can't be worried about that. Because we now have exactly 90 days after today to get done what must be done.  

August 21st Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - Don't Be Miserable In Advance

     For about a month now, I've been battling depression. That is not an admission that comes easily to me, but I have to face it. I'm feeling overworked and overwhelmed, and things just keep getting harder. Last night, I resolved to return to my practice of spending some time every day studying Stoic teachings. It has helped tremendously in the past, and I think it is perhaps the best thing I can do for myself now. Today I got some more bad news about some impending difficulties - about 3 months out - and it means I won't be able to visit home in 2 months as I had planned. I've waited about 6 years to visit home, and to have it snatched away now could be very upsetting . . . if it were not a thing indifferent, having no direct part in virtue nor vice. See? It's helping already!
     So, among my resolutions is to return to reading The Daily Stoic every day. Blogging the classical quotations from the core of each daily teaching was my way of keeping myself accountable, so I thought I might return to this as well. It seems a little weird - having already posted the quotations, is there really any point to posting them again? Well, the quotations obviously haven't changed, but my reactions and thoughts will have. So the project has value, if only to me. I hope that anyone who may stumble across this blog may find them valuable as well.
     Today's quote, which was just what I needed to read today:

"It's ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of the misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest - by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things."

It does me no good to dwell on the things that I have lost, sacrificed, or given up over the last month or so, and no good to dwell upon losing a visit to home that was never mine to begin with, nor still to dwell overmuch on what must be done within the next three months - the matters themselves are things indifferent, though much dispreferred indifferents, and suffering for them now is foolish at any rate. As long as I can focus upon these truths, I do not suffer.