PASSION this day forward, whenever we do anything wrong we will impute it only to the principle from which we act; and we will endeavour to remove that, and cut it up by the roots with greater care than we would wens and tumours from the body. In like manner, we will ascribe what we do right to the same cause; and we will accuse neither servant, nor neighbour, nor wife, nor children as the causes of any evils to us; persuaded that if we had not such principles, such consequences would not follow. Of these principles we ourselves, and not externals, are the masters.
EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book i. §11. ¶3.
THOROUGHLY consider, how man's life is but for a very moment of time, and so depart meek, and contented: even as if a ripe Olive falling, should praise the ground that bare her, and give thanks to the tree that begat her.
MARCUS AURELIUS. MEDITATIONS. Book iv. 39.
Life goes so quickly some times, even with warning from a long illness, time seems to speed up as we approach the end of our life. I want to leave this world better than the one I entered. I want to never leave things unsaid or undone so that I am caught unawares and my family is left to pick up pieces and clean up messes that I have left behind in the wake of my lifetime. Let us greet each evening as if death could greet us in the night, laying aside our life and laying it in the arms of the gods. Each morning is a gift of more life to live and fulfill our promise.
ReplyDeleteRemember that when you have done something wrong, the impulse to do so came from within you. Each time you accept the offer to pursue a vice, you bind yourself with a thread to the habit, until you have made a strong cord woven of your choices. Do not blame others when they drag you by the cord you have created, but rather seek to cut the threads that you have made, one by one. It is choice that makes us who we are, for only choice is vice, only choice is virtue. - Inspired by Epictetus.
ReplyDeleteI'm sowing the seeds
ReplyDeleteI'm sowing the seeds I take for granted
This thorn in my side
This thorn in my side is from the tree I've planted
Caught under wheel's roll
I take the leech
I'm bleeding me
Can't stop to save my soul
I take the leash that's leading me
I'm diggin' my way
I'm diggin' my way to somethin' better
--Inspired by Metallica ("Bleeding Me")