The young stoic can sometimes have trouble honing the virtues of his character with self-restraint from the excess of any kind. It might seem clichéd to expect to observe within yourself, as Marcus Aurelius describes in his personal writings, “…qualities then which are altogether in thy power, sincerity, gravity, endurance of labour, aversion to pleasure, contentment with thy portion and with few things, benevolence, frankness, no love of superfluity, freedom from trifling, magnanimity…” when the world treats you with indifference all the same whether or not you attempt to embody said characteristics.
The mind can be a tough customer demanding sound reason behind the choices that comprise the day to be passed, a reason that justifies the day’s labor with equal or more immediately-foreseeable reward. Yet, no matter how far one strays away from a centered state, they’d always find themselves coming back to a sense of purpose that they must do what satisfies the spirit, rather the mind or heart. And what’s remarkable is that nature itself brings us back to our center: the uncertainty, the turbulence, and relentlessness of time and space brings us stability and an awareness of the fact that the tide is there to be ridden, and not to be controlled.
Thought Excerpts 