Whatever it is that I am, it is flesh and a little spirit and an intelligence. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.2
I pulled open Meditations today to reflect on what I had read last year… or maybe it was a few years ago. The point is that idea immediately popped out at me.
We are more than flesh and blood. More than our spiritual and our values. More than our intelligence. More than a family and more than friends. We are the aggregate - the sum of all of our parts. Who we are now is a result of years and years of shaping and decisions - good or bad. If we change one aspect of who we are, the other aspects feel the effect.
Take care of you - all of you.
Nobody is coming for you. Nobody is paying you enough not to take care of you.
Marcus continues:
Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.
Take care of you.
We need you. I need you.
Thank you for being here.
