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