Whispers Of Legacy

It's day 194 of documenting 2025.

Well, today was quite sunny 😎 

Did all my laundry and they all dried....I'm grateful for that.

As well as the opportunity to see a new week.

"I need you".

I heard that this morning. 

Maybe it was false telepathy....or my mind making it up...

I can't say.

I just heard it in my head.

(You're probably thinking..."she's slowly losing it" 😏)

All I know is, someone out there needs me.

And it felt good to be needed.

The teaching job has not allowed me to feel anything more than what needed to be felt.

It's like I'm putting on an act for everyone....and I mean everyone, including myself.

Today felt different.

For a split second, I truly felt something.

I think the story I wrote yesterday about Memento Mori also contributed to that...in a way.

Guess the void was quite bigger than I thought 😕

Let me stop here for now.

Time to hide behind the sections for today.

I've revealed more than enough.

Let's see what we're highlighting today...

365 Days With Self-discipline 

📌 On Pain And Quitting 

"Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever."

Quote by Lance Armstrong

Pain, particularly during strenuous exercise, is often so overpowering that you can barely think straight.

However, it’s through this pain that we grow, and it’s a necessary part of the process, just like embracing discomfort in general is essential for rejecting instant gratification in order to accomplish your long-term goals.

Whenever you feel tempted to give up because of momentary pain, do your best to remind yourself that pain passes, but the disappointment you’ll feel upon

quitting will accompany you for a long time. 

Giving up will give you some relief

right now, but the price you’ll have to pay will be ultimately more painful than bearing the pain a little while longer.

I won't give up....not anymore.

I won't quit on myself...neither will I quit on my hopes and dreams.

I have to fight for them.

These past few weeks, I've been letting circumstances win.

That ends today.

Moving forward...

Let's draw on some stoic wisdom from Marcus Aurelius.

Meditations 

📌 Book 4

19. People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too. 

And those after them in turn. 

Until their memory, passed from one to another like a candle flame, gutters and goes out. But suppose that those who remembered you were immortal and your memory undying. 

What good would it do you? 

And I don’t just mean when you’re dead, but in your own lifetime. 

What use is praise, except to make

your lifestyle a little more comfortable?

“ You’re out of step—neglecting the gifts of nature to hand on someone’s words in the future. “

20. Beautiful things of any kind are beautiful in themselves and sufficient to themselves. 

Praise is extraneous. The object of praise remains what it was—no better and no worse. 

This applies, I think, even to “beautiful” things in ordinary life—physical objects, artworks.

Does anything genuinely beautiful need supplementing? No more than justice does—or truth, or kindness, or humility. 

Are any of those improved by being praised? Or damaged by contempt? Is an emerald suddenly flawed if no one admires it? 

Or gold, or ivory, or purple? Lyres? Knives? Flowers? Bushes?

21. If our souls survive, how does the air find room for them—all of them—since the beginning of time?

How does the earth find room for all the bodies buried in it since the beginning of time? 

They linger for whatever length of time, and then, through change and decomposition, make room for others. So too with the souls that inhabit the air. 

They linger a little, and then are changed—diffused and kindled into fire, absorbed into the logos from which all things spring, and so make room for new arrivals.

One possible answer.

But we shouldn’t think only of the mass of buried bodies. 

There are the ones consumed, on a daily basis, by us and by other animals. 

How many are swallowed up like that, entombed in the bodies of those nourished by them, and yet there is room for them all—converted into flesh and blood, transformed to air and fire.

How is the truth of this determined?

Through analysis: material and cause.

I understood part of this...but some parts were quite vague to my understanding.

So, I asked my assistant, Arnold for help and here's the reply:

19. On Posthumous Fame

Marcus questions the value of being remembered after death. 

He reminds us that even the memory others hold of us will eventually vanish, just like those who remember.  

He challenges the ego’s desire for legacy, showing it as empty, because:  

- You won’t be around to enjoy it.  

- Even if remembered, it offers no real benefit to your soul or inner peace.  

- It distracts from the present, where virtue and meaningful living actually matter.

Key Lesson:

Live for the present and for virtue; not for fame or legacy.

20. On Beauty and Praise

He argues that true beauty; like truth, justice, humility...doesn’t need recognition to be what it is.  

Whether praised or ignored, its essence remains unchanged.  

An emerald is still an emerald, whether admired or not.

Key Lesson:

Let your actions be beautiful and true, not because others admire them, but because they are right in themselves.

21. On Death, Souls, and Transformation

Marcus reflects on the physical and spiritual cycle of life and death:  

- How is there still space for all souls since the beginning of time?

- Just as the earth makes space for decomposed bodies, the universe transforms souls back into its source; logos (divine reason or order).  

- Even consumption (by animals or people) is part of this natural recycling...nothing is lost, only changed.

Key Lesson: 

Death isn’t an end but transformation. All things return to nature, to the logos, to make room for what’s next.

In essence:

- Fame fades.  

- Beauty and goodness are whole in themselves.  

- Death is part of the natural flow, nothing to fear.  

It all points back to living virtuously, presently, and without attachment.

That was much more understandable, wasn't it?

I agree 💯 

This is where today's post ends...and I wish you a wonderful week ahead ☺️ 

Thanks for reading, my friend 

I'm Duon Ada.

I'm documenting 2025,

And I'll see you tomorrow.

Ciao 💕