I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the riversflow in the right direction, will the earth turnas it was taught, and if not how shallI correct it?Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,can I do better?Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrowscan do it and I am, well,hopeless.Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,am I going to get rheumatism,lockjaw, dementia?Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.

"You can hold your breath until you turn blue, but they'll still go on doing it." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Don't you just love a great translation? I'm not sure Marcus Aurelius wrote it exactly as it's translated above, but the Gregory Hays translation is full of such approachable wisdom nuggets. It's an easy entry into the mind of a thoughtful Stoic. We live in a strange world where reality seems obvious but often refuted by those who drink a different color Kool-Aid. They think we're not seeing the obvious, we think they are delusional.

"Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do.Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you.Sanity means tying it to your own actions."—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations With respect to the folks who are spun up about the latest offensive thing happening in the world, the thing that matters most to our well-being is what we can control ourselves. And what we can control is our actions. So it follows that we must be bold in facing the day! Our choices may not seem like the thing that moves the world, but our choices move…

Rise up this morning,
Smile with the rising sun— Bob Marley & The Wailers, Three Little Birds Attitude is everything, as the old expression goes. When we move through the world in a joyful state, we tend to attract more joyfulness into our orbit. When we walk around with a scowl on our face, complaining about the state of the world, the world retreats away from us, lest they catch some of that bitterness we're coughing up. Every little thing may or may not be all right. We all have things going on that could be better, or will surely get worse.

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape. Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn't show." — Andrew Wyeth I would be lying if I were to write that I love winter the most. It's true that I do love winter, and snow, and the cold dark indifference of the long night. But to say I love winter most is to ignore the very best days of spring, when the daffodils are blooming and there is hope in the air. Or the warm comfort of summer days, with the meditative delight of deadheading the flowers and plucking cherry tomatoes from stem to mouth.

I am a part of all that I have met;Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades— Alfred Tennyson, Ulysses There is a call to experience that draws us out into the world. Each experience in turn informs—there is still more awaiting us. The proper answer to the call is to keep going, to keep doing interesting things that expand our horizon. This is the life of discovery and wonder. It is ours for simply taking the bold next step into the unknown.

As wave is driven by waveAnd each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,Always, for ever and new. What was beforeIs left behind; what never was is now;And every passing moment is renewed.— Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XV We are forever transformed by what was. If we take this to be true, then it follows that what will be will be realized because of what we do now. Our lives are thus reinvented one day to the next, right to the end of our days.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day." ― Albert Einstein At this point in the blog, dear reader, you may have realized that I am a collector of quotes. I believe it's because I'm curious about what other people have to say about this journey through life.

“The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.” — E.E. Cummings Have a look around this winter day. How do you feel about snow? Remember, in answering, what we mean to the snow. One's relationship with snow often comes down to what one is prioritizing that particular day. When we focus only on the bleak reality of our day, snow tends to be nothing but a barrier. We want to get from here to there, but for the snow. We want to park there, but for the snow.

i thank You God for most this amazingday: for the leaping greenly spirits of treesand a blue true dream of sky; and for everythingwhich is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today,and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birthday of life and of love and wings: and of the gaygreat happening illimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeingbreathing any—lifted from the noof all nothing—human merely beingdoubt unimaginable You? (now the ears of my ears awake and…

Beauty is twicebeautifuland goodness is doublygoodwhenit concerns two woolssocksin winter.— Pablo Neruda, Ode To A Pair Of Socks There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who complain about the weather and those who dress for the weather we've been blessed to experience this day. The former tend to shelter in place. The latter tend to step out into it. I don't judge either camp, but I'm clearly in the latter. While snowshoeing Saturday morning, I came to a split in the trail.

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland We are having a proper winter in New Hampshire this season. The cold is unrelenting and the snow consistent. It isn't inclined to melt away when the days are frigid. Instead we have sublimation of the snowpack, and a sting on the skin.

Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;There are four seasons in the mind of man:He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clearTakes in all beauty with an easy span:He has his Summer, when luxuriouslySpring's honied cud of youthful thought he lovesTo ruminate, and by such dreaming highIs nearest unto heaven: quiet covesHis soul has in its Autumn, when his wingsHe furleth close; contented so to lookOn mists in idleness—to let fair thingsPass by unheeded as a threshold brook.

"Joy is not made to be a crumb." — Mary Oliver, Don't Hesitate It hasn't been lost on me that I've largely ignored the joy in the abundance of snow we're having this winter while focusing on the chores that come with that abundance of snow. There ought to be more snowshoeing. There ought to be more walks in frozen woods. There ought to be more snowy play dates with the pup, who's got enough joy to fill a barn. We can learn a lot from joyful souls, whether they're human or otherwise.

"As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three. How long? And what do I do with the time I've got left? Aging is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person you always should have been." — David Bowie "Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." — Pablo Picasso We are all getting older. I'm within 90 days of a milestone birthday myself, which begs the question, what am I going to do when I finally grow up? But why do we have to grow up anyway?

“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on. In all the confusions of today, with all our troubles . . . with politicians and people slinging the word fear around, all of us become discouraged . . . tempted to say this is the end, the finish. But life — it goes on. It always has. It always will. Don’t forget that.” ― Robert Frost The world can feel overwhelming at time. It has always been so. Some days feel especially cold, particularly mean-spirited, largely hopeless.

“Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake, heavy with useless experience, rich with suspicion, rumour, fantasy, crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge of mere fact. In the prime of your life.” — Adrienne Rich What a glorious quote. A poet struggling under the weight of identity, breaking away from the storybook life expected of her, stepping into a new narrative. We are transformed by thought and action, or we will remain forever imprisoned by expectations. No matter how much we replay it, our past is dead and gone. Our present is tenuous but malleable.

We see it most vividly when a fresh blanket of snow covers the landscape. Like children in bedsheets pretending to be ghosts, the hardscape rises up in whispers, haunting us with what once was in warmer days. Of what may be again in whispers of the future. But not now. Now there is only silence and a cold tickle on the back of the neck. Ghosts? Or merely snowflakes finding skin? The imagination brings us to our version of the truth. The only truth here is the quiet embrace of winter.

"Third things are essential to marriages, objects or practices or habits or arts or institutions or games or human beings that provide a site of joint rapture or contentment. Each member of a couple is separate; the two come together in double attention. Lovemaking is not a third thing but two-in-one. John Keats can be a third thing, or the Boston Symphony Orchestra, or Dutch interiors, or Monopoly." — John Hall, The Third Thing We have our self, we have our selves, and we have what we are mutually focused on in our time together.

"To be like a rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations We are all works in progress, and it's understandable to be stirred by emotion—just look at all that happens in this world. To be provoked is instinctual. To be stoic is logical. Which comes naturally? Emotions are thus easy to stir up, but are we effective when emotional? Are we clear-headed and deliberate in our actions? Not likely. And so to be the best possible version of ourselves, to survive a crisis in the midst of chaos, we must train ourselves to react better to stimulus.

"I myself think that the wise man meddles little or not at all in affairs and does his own things." — Chrysippus We have a serious issue on our hands. There is simply not enough time today to do all that we might do. Spending time on anything is serious business when we recognize how little of it we have left to spend. Knowing that time is our precious currency in a brief life, why do we carelessly toss it away on things beyond our control? The affairs of others is not our concern when those affairs are beyond our control.

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." ― Voltaire We all know the score. There's no need to run down the list of affronts and miscarriages of justice. There is no need to tell us what is wrong with the world at all, for we too have eyes to see. We don't have to add our miserable voice to the choir. The choir is at full strength already. Be a voice for hope and joy instead. It's not naive or a head in the sand denial—it's a beacon of salvation in the darkness.

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” — Voltaire We may see the chains that others carry, but when they've wrapped them around their life like a comfortable blanket, removing them becomes all but impossible. It's part of their identity. And identity is a very tricky thing to work with. They must see the chains themselves, they must choose to release the burden they represent. We can't make someone reject the chains they revere, we can only help them see them for what they are. Naturally, we have our own chains we must learn to see, and every day is an opportunity to break free link-by-link (if we don't simply throw them all off in one swift go).

And the days are not full enoughAnd the nights are not full enough And life slips by like a field mouse Not shaking the grass.— Ezra Pound There is a compulsion to fill my days and nights with experience. Perhaps you share this too. There is an equally pressing sense that time is slipping past us at shocking speed. Tempus fugit. We humans are bound to notice it eventually. Forever chasing experience. Forever working to be here, now. It's a blessing and a curse to be aware. Mostly a blessing, for awareness offers a glimpse of all that flies past.

“Noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as the cooperation with good.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. A while back, I had a drink with a couple of old friends who celebrate the chaotic leadership of the current administration. There's simply no consensus between us when it comes to politics, but there is common ground that we've walked on for years. What I believe to be evil and they believe to be good are unchangeable. They believe I'm quaintly naive, I believe they didn't study for the test and are smugly cheating off the wrong answer sheet.