True Peace, Good Fortune

It's day 252 of documenting 2025.

Today's is 9/9/25

It's kinda cool...to see the 9th day in the 9th month of the year.

Thank God for His grace 😌

Today was one of those slow and restful days.

It wasn't the usual, as I slept through the afternoon, thinking it would cure my sore muscles immediately. It didn't.

It's all good tho...the long nap didn't really disturb any of my routine activities.

It was actually needed.

Life update aside, we're going to do some Meditations today.

As well as the usual highlights.

I could also throw in a comment or two....so let's see how it goes.

Oh and by the way, I'm referring to a collection of writings by Marcus Aurelius.

(We'll be wrapping up Book 5 today)

Meditations 

📌 Book 5

34. You can lead an untroubled life provided you can grow, can think and act systematically.

Two characteristics shared by gods and men (and every rational creature):

i. Not to let others hold you back.

ii. To locate goodness in thinking and doing the right thing, and to limit your desires to that.

35. If:

• this evil is not of my doing,

• nor the result of it,

• and the community is not endangered, why should it bother me?

Where's the danger for the community?

36. Not to be overwhelmed by what you imagine, but just do what you can and should. 

And if < . . . > suffer in inessentials, not to treat that as a defeat. (Bad habit.)

Like the old man asking for the orphan’s toy on the way out—even though he knew that’s all it was. Like that.

36a. † Up on the platform. †

Have you forgotten what’s what?

—I know, but it was important to them. 

And so you have to be an idiot as well?

37. I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me.

But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. 

Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.

Well, I understand some of this...not all.

Our Roman friend wasn't so direct with this ones..or was he? 🤔 

Let's see what he was trying to say, with a little AI help.

34.

A peaceful life is possible when you grow mentally and act with intention.  

Two things connect us with the divine:  

- Not letting people control your inner peace.  

- Defining goodness as thinking rightly and doing what's right; nothing more.

35.

If a situation isn’t your fault, isn’t caused by your actions, and doesn’t harm the community, then why let it disturb you? 

There's no real danger unless it affects the whole.  

36. 

Don’t let your imagination create more trouble than reality does. 

Just do your part, and don’t overreact to minor discomforts or losses. 

That’s immaturity; like an old man upset over a child’s toy.  

36a.

When you're caught up in others’ opinions or ceremonies, ask yourself: 

“Have I forgotten what truly matters?”  

Even if it matters to them, don’t become foolish just to fit in.

37.

You might feel that luck once favored you but doesn’t anymore. But real “luck” isn’t chance; it’s building strong character, pure intentions, and right actions.

Now that's better, isn't it? 😄

These are the last excerpts from Book 5 of the collected writings.

Next time, we start with Book 6.

I think all that Marcus wrote have a common context, like he's trying to say a few things in a thousand ways.

That's what I call creativity...and if a Roman Emperor can be that creative, you can do it too, with or without AI.

You're a child of the greatest Creator in the world!

The creator of the universe, who made all things exist!

Embrace it! 🥰

365 Days With Self-discipline 

📌 On Getting Older 

"The average person is in the habit of saying, "The older I get” and he thereby calls the attention of his mind to the idea that he is getting older. 

In brief, he compels his mind to believe that he is getting older and older, and thereby directs the mind to produce more and more age. 

The true expression in this connection is, "The longer I live.”

This expression calls the mind’s attention to the length of life, which will, in turn, tend to increase the power of that process in you that can prolong life. 

When people reach the age of sixty or seventy, they usually speak of “the rest of my days", thus implying the idea that there are only a few more days remaining. 

The mind is thereby directed to finish life in a short period of time, and accordingly, all the forces of the mind will proceed to work for the speedy termination of

personal existence. 

The correct expression is “from

now on", as, that leads thought into the future indefinitely without impressing the mind with any end whatever."

Quote by Christian D. Larson

(Pretty long, right? 😏)

One of the people I admire the most are the elderly who continue to live their lives to the fullest despite the ocean of old people nagging and complaining that it’s too late to change.

I never understood it: how can you conclude that your life is over and give up simply because you’re older? Is there some force of nature that is making you unable to think, act, and change or is it a deeply-held limiting belief of yours?

Don’t use the process of aging as a rationalization for why you can’t reach your goals. 

It’s true that getting older comes with a higher risk that your body won’t function as well as it used to, but it doesn’t mean that now you should retreat from life.

Do the best you can with what you have, surround yourself with people who are mentally young (regardless of their biological age), and there’s no risk you’ll ever turn into those bitter, cranky old people who are living their lives while waiting for physical death (because mentally, they’ve already passed away).

So, I'm gonna say a thing or two on this....

While people say, "age is just a number", most people don't think they can still accomplish their goals as they age.

You could even hear people say, "I'm too old for this"....in their 50s!

We age gradually, yes...but our minds don't have to.

With consistent learning and application, we can live the lives we want to, regardless of how old we may get 😌

And I'll borrow that to end today's post.

I got an idea this evening, which seemed divine...but I won't start any execution until my Executive gives me the go-ahead.

(More on this later....)

Thanks for reading 🎀 

If you enjoyed this post, you'll probably like the 250+ posts that I've written on the main site, Documenting 2025.

If not, it's all good.

See you in the next post 💜