Photography

This from yesterday’s Daily Stoic newsletter. I’m quoting it wholly, because short though it may be; it packs such a powerful punch. Your Uber driver is delayed and you want a credit for the inconvenience. Your house is damaged in a storm and you want your insurance to pay for every penny of the repairs. Someone says something pointed and personal at you, and you want them not only to apologize, but to convince you that they never meant it in the first place. ...

It was the hour of four in the afternoon, and already in hillside homesteads the day was nearly done. There was everywhere an air of that sweet, old-fashioned leisure which the world has nearly lost. It lingered in the slant sunlight that threw shadows across the winding road… — Florence Bone (1875–1971), The Morning of To‑Day, 1907

The Bridge of Angels (Ponte Sant’Angelo), leading to the Castel Sant’Angelo (Hadrian’s Castle) It took me a half an hour to slowly traverse it :) It was that beautiful.

Go thou to Rome,—at once the Paradise, The grave, the city, and the wilderness; And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress The bones of Desolation’s nakedness Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead Thy footsteps to a slope of green access Where, like an infant’s smile, over the dead A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread … — Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonais, 49. ...

Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly. — Seneca, Letter 61: On Meeting Death Cheerfully

“Trust that what brought you here Will take you there. The Infinite has no preferences. It kisses both the darkness and The light equally.” — The Lost Writings of Wu Hsin