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Don’t Mind Me, I’m Only Dying Slow

by DW Green — November 17, 2021

Every person is born with a death sentence. Each second that passes by is one you’ll never get back.

Have you ever heard some ask: “What would you do if you found out tomorrow that you had cancer?” The question is designed to make you consider how different life might be if you were suddenly given just a few months or weeks to live. There’s nothing like a terminal illness to wake people up.But here’s the thing: you already have a terminal diagnosis. We all do! As the writer Edmund Wilson put it, “Death is one prophecy that never fails.” Every person is born with a death sentence. Each second that passes by is one you’ll never get back.Once you realize this, it will have a profound impact on what you do, say, and think. Don’t let another day tick away in ignorance of the reality that you’re a dying person. We all are. Can today be the day we stop pretending otherwise?

Read More – I Owe, I Owe…

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Behold, Now As Ever

by DW Green — November 10, 2021

Love of fate: the welcoming of all life’s experiences as good.

The events that will transpire today are the same as the things that have always occurred. People living and dying, animals living and dying, clouds rolling in and rolling out, air sucked in and sucked out, as it has for aeons. This moment right now to paraphrase Emerson, is a quotation of the moments that have come before and will come ever after.This idea is expressed nowhere more beautifully than in the Christianity hymn Gloria Patri. “as it was in the beginning, and now, and always to the ages of ages.” This thought is not supposed to be depressing or uplifting. It’s just a fact. However, it can have a calming, centering effect. No need to get excited, no need to wait on pins and needles. If you haven’t seen this before, someone else has. That can be a relief.

Read More – A.W.E.

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Hope And Fear Are The Same

by DW Green — November 3, 2021

Love of fate: the welcoming of all life’s experiences as good.

Hope is generally regarded as good. Fear is generally regarded as bad. To some, they are the same—both are projections into the future about things we do not control. Both are the enemy of this present moment that you are actually in. Both mean you’re living a life in opposite to amor fati (love of fate: the welcoming of all life’s experiences as good).It’s not about overcoming our fears but understanding that both hope and fear contain a dangerous amount of want and worry in them. And, sadly, the want is what causes the worry.

Read More – Getting to Know You

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You Choose The Outcome

by DW Green — October 27, 2021

Acceptance isn’t passive.

An event is objective. How we describe it—that it was unfair, or it’s a great calamity or that they did it on purpose—is on us.Malcom X (then Malcom Little) went into prison as a criminal, but he left as an educated, religious, and, motivated man who would help in the struggle for civil rights. Did he suffer an evil? Or did he choose to make his experience a positive one?Acceptance isn’t passive. It’s the first step in an active process toward self-improvement.

Read More – Motivating the Motivator

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All Is Fluid

by DW Green — October 20, 2021

The universe is in a constant state of change.

In Plutarch’s Life of Theseus, he describes how the ship of Theseus, an Athenian hero, was preserved by the people of Athens in battle-ready condition for many centuries. Each time a board decayed, it would be replaced until eventually every stick of wood in it had been replaced. Plutarch asks: Is it still the ship of Theseus, or is it a new one?In Japan, a famous ship Shinto shrine is rebuilt every twenty-three years. It’s gone through more than sixty of those cycles. Is it one shrine, 1,400 years old? Or sixty consecutive shrines? Even the U.S. Senate, given its staggered elections, could be said to have never been fully turned over. Is it the same body formed in the days of George Washington?Our understanding of what something is is just a snapshot—an ephemeral opinion. The universe is in a constant state of change. Our nails grow and are cut and keep growing. New skin replaces dead skin. Old memories are replaced by...
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Someone Else Is Spinning The Thread

by DW Green — October 13, 2021

Unexpected events can be good as well as bad/

The novelist Cormac McCarty was living in a motel room when he heard a knock at the door. It was a messenger—he’d been awarded the Macarthur “genius” grant and $250,000. Unexpected events can be good as well as bad.Who could dream of such an unexpected twist? Who but Clotho, one of the three Greek goddesses fate, who “spins” the thread of human life? To the ancients she was the one who decided the course of the events of our lives—some good, some bad. As the playwright Aeschylus wrote, “When the gods send evil, one cannot escape it.” The dame was true for great destiny and good fortune.Their resigned attitude might seem strange to us today, but they understood who was really in control (not them, not us!). No amount of prosperity, no amount of difficultly, is certain or forever. A triumph becomes a trial, a trial becomes a triumph. Life can change in an instant. Remember, today, how often it does.

Read More – Hype Expectations Vs Reality

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Not Good, Nor Bad

by DW Green — October 6, 2021

It’s only our opinion that says something is good or bad (and thus worth fighting against or fighting for).

When people say change is good, they’re usually trying to reassure someone (or themselves). Because instinctively we view change as bad—or at least we’re suspicious of it.Consider doing away with those labels altogether. Change isn’t good. The status quo isn’t bad. They just are.Remember, events are objective. It’s only our opinion that says something is good or bad (and thus worth fighting against or fighting for). A better attitude? To decide to make the most of everything. But to do that you must first cease fighting.

Read More – Attitude

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Accepting What Is.

by DW Green — September 29, 2021

Amor fati (a love of fate).

Something happened that we wish had not. Which of these is easiest to change: our opinion or the event that is past?

The answer is obvious. Accept what happened and change your wish that it had not happened. Stoicism calls this the “art of acquiescence”—to accept rather than fight every little thing.

And most practiced Stoics take it a step further. Instead of simply accepting what happens, they urge us to actually enjoy what has happened—whatever it is. Nietzsche, many centuries later, coined the perfect expression to capture this idea: amor fati (a love of fate). It’s not just accepting, it’s loving everything that happens.

To wish for what has happened to happen is a clever way to avoid disappointment because nothing is contrary to your desires. But to actually feel gratitude for what happens? To love it? That’s a recipe for happiness and joy.

Read More – Youthful Enthusiasm

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Show the Qualities You Were Made For

by DW Green — September 22, 2021

There are positive qualities that you can develop that don’t depend on genetic accidents.

It’s easy to blame our circumstances. One person curses that they weren’t born taller, another that they’re not smarter, with a different complexion, or born on a different country. It’d be hard to find a single person on this planet—from supermodels on down—who doesn’t think they’re deficient in at least some way. But whatever your perceived deficits are, remember that there are positive qualities that you can develop that don’t depend on genetic accidents.

You have the choice to be truthful. You have the choice to be dignified. You can choose to endure. You can choose to be happy. You can choose to be grateful. You can choose to be thrifty. You can choose to be kind to others. You can choose to be free. You can persist under difficult odds. You can avoid trafficking in gossip. You can choose to be gracious.

And honestly, aren’t the traits that are the result of effort and skill more impressive anyway?

Read More – Training

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The Benefit of Kindness

by DW Green — September 15, 2021

As always, we’re going to focus on what we can control.

The first person you meet today—passing acquaintance or friend—no matter the context—positive or negative—is an opportunity for kindness. Or as some have said, an opportunity for benefit. For both of you. You can seek to understand where they are coming from. You can seek to understand who they are, what they need, and what forces or impulses might be acting on them. And you can treat them well and be better off for it.The same is true with the second person you encounter, and the third. Of course, there is no guarantee that they will return the favor, but that’s not our concern. As always, we’re going to focus on what we can control: in this case, the ability to choose to respond with kindness.

Read More – Farts Are Still Funny

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