“Nor am I so mad as to crave illness; but if I must suffer illness, I shall desire that I may do nothing which shows lack of restraint, and nothing that is unmanly. The conclusion is, not that hardships are desirable, but that virtue is desirable, which enables us patiently to endure hardships.” –Seneca’s letters to Lucillius LXVII (47)
This line goes straight to what is thought of as “stoic” in the neo-modern interpretation, no? Continue reading
Often we think that if we can’t have a certain thing we will be crushed. Other times we may think that if our life does not go a certain way, we will not be happy. In fact, there may be things in our lives that seem like misfortune, when in fact they are a turning point that leads something even greater. That, I think is why grasping for an “if only…then I’ll be happy” is such a mistake.
There is a story that runs in Zen circles, normally it goes by the title of “Maybe.” It is appropriate in describing how we shouldn’t judge whether something is fortune and fortune.
Here it is: Continue reading
On to the first part of living so I can answer “Yes” to three questions.
Why are you not having fun right now, and every day? I know I value fun. Sometimes I want to live life like it was an adventure, and other times like I was at the spa, but the real question is if I am having fun. Continue reading
For Father’s Day, I thought I would contemplate 10 lessons that I learned from my father. My relationship with him is good, and he is still alive and kicking. Like many sons, I generally don’t convey those things I appreciate about him often enough and tend to focus on the negatives far too often. The negatives are minor things, annoyances really, which means that I’ve been quite lucky to have a dad like him. So here they are. Continue reading
I changed my path. It took me over 10 years. There are many reasons I did this, many reasons it took so long as well. I have a list of reasons that I started about 10 years ago. The list grew and solidified over time.
Today, though, I wanted to share two of the reasons taken from my list: More time to just “be” and “more time with my family.” Continue reading