Palm Sunday

 

 I read "The Daily Stoic" daily.  Wonderful reflections on life by Ryan Holiday all based in the philosophy of the Stoics.  Check out Ryan's work here: https://ryanholiday.net/ 

The world can break you down. Certainly, it can break down your illusions. You get tired. You get cynical. You despair. It’s in these moments, you wonder why you ought to bother to carry on. Seneca asked himself this as he was trapped in desolate exile. Marcus Aurelius asked himself this after burying another one of his children. Epictetus must have asked himself this nearly every morning of the first thirty years of his life, which he spent as a slave. What do we draw on in these crises of faith? Fortitude, sure. Stoicism is all about that. But what about finding something encouraging in the ordinary beauty of the world around you? It is this that Marcus Aurelius is doing in Meditations, where he marvels at the way bread breaks open in the oven, the way an olive ripens and falls to the ground, the flecks of foam on a boar’s mouth. In the midst of ugliness, in the midst of evil, in the midst of despair, these bright spots are always there. As we said a while back, Seneca spent a lot of time bemoaning Corsica, where he was exiled, totally missing the beauty and grandeur that drew 3 million tourists to the island just last year! We’ve talked about how as terrible and deprived as Epictetus’ life was, the magnificence of golden hour was always in his reach. So too, apparently, were the ideas from the Stoics, which made their way to him and brightened his life. Good exists everywhere—we need only look for it. Beauty surrounds us, waiting to be noticed. And for every reason to despair, there are countless moments of wonder ready to reveal themselves to those who keep their eyes—and their hearts—open. Ryan Holiday

I wandered lonely as a cloud

 I wandered lonely as a cloud, William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

I have a dream, Martin Luther King, Jr.

From I Have A Dream (delivered August 28, 1963)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968)

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." 

I taught myself to live simply

I Taught Myself to Live Simply

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,

to look at the sky and pray to God,

and to wander long before evening

to tire my superfluous worries.

When the burdocks rustle in the ravine

and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops

I compose happy verses

about life's decay, decay and beauty.

I come back. The fluffy cat

licks my palm, purrs so sweetly

and the fire flares bright

on the saw-mill turret by the lake.

Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof

occasionally breaks the silence.

If you knock on my door

I may not even hear.

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966)