Sunday Musings Greet The Day Two

Happy Sunday Friends!

Here is 1 quote I’m musing, 2 Ideas, 3 of my favorite things from the week, and 1 question. If you find it useful or interesting, please feel free to forward this along to some friends or others!

One Quote I’m Musing

"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

—But it’s nicer here…

So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?

—But we have to sleep sometime…

Agreed. But nature set a limit on that—as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you’re still below your quota.

You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for the dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts."

-Marcus Aurelius | Excerpt from meditations

Whenever I have a bout of “I don’t wanna”, I revisit this passage. Sometimes we find ourselves in a bit of a slump, sometimes we’re frustrated, annoyed, feeling defeated, or we’re joyous, accomplished, and motivated.

In the good times, it helps me remind myself that I am doing the right things, that the work and consternation over yes vs no is working.

In the bad times, it helps me remind myself of the importance of doing what is in my nature, what I'm supposed to be doing, and that I may have strayed away from what I want to do, and into the mimetic desire area of doing a thing because others want me to.

How we spend our morning is how we spend our day, which is how we spend our life.

Two Ideas From Me

1. Two things that aren’t helpful: Fear of future pain and dwelling on pain in the past. The latter is no longer of value other than lessons learned and cast aside; the former isn’t of concern yet.

2. Part of focusing on what is within our control is not ceding control of those very same things; for then you are truly amidst the chaos of others’ wills.

Three Favorite Things From Others

1. Home Assistant - an Open source home automation tool you can run from any system. Use a Rasberry Pi, a client system, or a local server. I’m slowly converting all of my 3rd party controlled systems to it. That way I don’t even need the internet to run my house… let alone a subscription (We’ve cut the cord, now we should cut the subs). | More (www.home-assistant.io)

2. “You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.” | Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

3. “Do something well, and that is quickly enough.” | Baltasar Gracián

One Question

Given than you only have so much time in a day, in a year, in a lifetime… how will you spend it?

Have a wonderful week,

I’ll see you Sunday.
​-e