01 September 2006

Love that to which you return…


Some of you must have had this feeling:

…you are riding along with the buddies, you think you’re strong, you hit that hill and a sudden realization hits you square in the gut:

…you’re not nearly as strong as you thought…you will never be, actually…you realize your limits, for there are limits to who you are…to what you can do....

Depressive sensation or realistic acceptance?

My reading buddy, Marcus Aurelius – I sometimes turn to him in times of distress, old-stoic, meditating know-it-all, he tells me:

Be not unhappy, or discouraged, or dissatisfied, if you do not succeed in acting always by the right principles; but when you have failed, try again, and be content if most of your acts are consistent with man’s nature. Love that to which you return…. [Meditations, V, 9]

But then again he never rode a bicycle up that hill….

3 comments:

Johan Mörén said...

Good post!

I know the feeling. And hey, the feeling when you return to the hill, one or two years later, and you flatten it without struggle is priceless.

/Johan

Chaty said...

Thanks, Johan. Just feeling a bit philosophical lately -- perhaps the end of summer; the beginning of fall.

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