To Know Thyself - and Self Reflection - teaches us to understand Self, emotions, feelings, thinking, decisions, choices, re-actions, responses, to drop what we don't need, gives us more freedom to move, a different energy, this in itself creates a certain type of happiness, love your article meredith as alwaysxx
Absolutely Miriam. Sometimes our intellect taps us gently on the shoulder and says, “Again, but slower this time.” The second read often reveals the gold we missed while rushing through the first.
This is a hard lesson to master. I have Amor Fati tattooed on my left wrist as a constant reminder that everything is fuel for the fire. 🔥 Happy Writing Meredith!🤠🤙
I hope you won't mind me sharing a poem I wrote a few weeks ago that goes well (I think) with the thoughts on aging and amor fati I've seen in your posts and the comments.
Perhaps it's not the things and people that are making you unhappy. Perhaps it's much deeper than that. Happiness begins with us. And no person, place, or thing can MAKE us happy. This is evidenced by people who amass stuff and money and connections and still are not happy and just keep amassing more and more. That hole will never be filled with any of that.
To Know Thyself - and Self Reflection - teaches us to understand Self, emotions, feelings, thinking, decisions, choices, re-actions, responses, to drop what we don't need, gives us more freedom to move, a different energy, this in itself creates a certain type of happiness, love your article meredith as alwaysxx
Thank you Meredith. Must be a time for me to relisten and reread
Absolutely Miriam. Sometimes our intellect taps us gently on the shoulder and says, “Again, but slower this time.” The second read often reveals the gold we missed while rushing through the first.
This is a hard lesson to master. I have Amor Fati tattooed on my left wrist as a constant reminder that everything is fuel for the fire. 🔥 Happy Writing Meredith!🤠🤙
Ah, Amor Fati — a bold choice!
Yes, the lesson is hard, but there’s something beautifully defiant about saying, “Whatever comes, I’ll love it, even if it comes dressed as chaos.”
Happy writing to you too!
I hope you won't mind me sharing a poem I wrote a few weeks ago that goes well (I think) with the thoughts on aging and amor fati I've seen in your posts and the comments.
Aging
July 3, 2025
Not long ago Ambition claimed
a pride of place in me. I blamed
the day if I could not achieve
the tasks I'd set myself. To leave
a thing undone would sour my mood -
displeased, I'd scour my list and brood.
My outlook: Life is far too short
to be not driven. No resort
to nonchalance would I allow.
Always I set my hand to plow
a further field. To fight, resist
all rules and limits. To insist
on doing more. To make Life bend
to me. But now I comprehend
ambition only goes so far,
and we must own to who we are -
just specks of dust from distant stars.
Indeed, I've learned I needn't spar
with Life. And now at night I lie
content enough that I have tried.
And in the morning I can rise
and scan God's great eternal skies,
admiring shifting light and cloud.
Calmer, grateful to have bowed
to greater forces. Letting go
permits connection to the flow
of All. Ambition has its place.
But aging brings with it the grace
of seeing through another lense.
Amor fati.
Love what each days sends.
More sage and useful advice. Amor fati, indeed.
Perhaps it's not the things and people that are making you unhappy. Perhaps it's much deeper than that. Happiness begins with us. And no person, place, or thing can MAKE us happy. This is evidenced by people who amass stuff and money and connections and still are not happy and just keep amassing more and more. That hole will never be filled with any of that.
You’re absolutely right, Kaz. Nothing in the world can fill you up. That has to be done entirely by yourself.