My dear friend gifted me a wonderful book for Christmas this year....
Yes, that's a pillar candle with Christopher Walken in Saint robes!
If you're ever in San Antonio, check out the shop Leighelena at The Pearl to get one!
I've been reading it daily, and it's been a great catalyst for personal introspection and external acceptance of the world around me.
For those not familiar with stoic philosophy, it's pretty much accepting the world around you for what it is and understanding that aside from your own personal choices, you can't control outside factors and environs.
Wikipedia aptly explains it as such:
"According to its teachings, as social beings, the path to happiness for humans is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain, by using one's mind to understand the world and to do one's part in nature's plan, and by working together and treating others fairly and justly."
In a world in which we often get angered and frustrated by the milieu around us every day, stoicism tells us to relax and be mindful.
I last wrote nearly two months ago, prior to receiving this book. In that post, and some of my earlier posts, I tried to wrap my reflections on life around an idea that I was forming. It's funny how the core of what I was trying to explain was really, idealistically stoic.
I think we often forget that our "modern" problems aren't new at all. People have been dealing with issues for millenia. Pain, joy, angst, love, hate, lust, loathing, laziness, idolatry, gossip....all of these things and more.
One of my favorite passages that I have read so far from the book is this:
"How many have laid waste to your life when you weren't aware of what you were losing, how much was wasted in pointless grief, foolish joy, greedy desire, and social amusements - how little of your own was left to you."
-Seneca, On the Brevity of Life, 3.3b
I wanted to share all of this because I feel like it has helped me to gain some perspective so far this year. My goal is to be constantly mindful and aware; to remember what I can influence, and what I cannot, and to find happiness where it exists. Despite the ugliness and pain that is constant in this world, there is also beauty and joy. I hear it in the song of a blue jay flitting in the trees. I see it in the sunlight when it rises every morning. I feel it in my heart when my daughters wrap their hands around mine and lay their heads on my chest.
Find the beauty in each day. Find happiness as it makes itself known to you. Don't be consumed by fear and pain and the unknown. Live in the moment and be mindful. And to quote my generation's most beloved stoics, Bill and Ted..."Be excellent to eachother!"
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References:
Holiday, Ryan. The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perserverance, and the Art of Living. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2016. Print.
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