Because I’m in the middle of an action cycle, I see cause and effect more than usual. Yes, sometimes it’s correlation. But a few decades of experience tells me otherwise.
Today in Meditations there is a little excerpt that echoes this idea:
Humanity, divinity, and the world: all of them bearing fruit. Each fruitful in its season. Normally we limit the word to vines and other plants. Unnecessarily.
Meditations 9:10.
Then he goes on to talk about the logos.
Which of course reminds me of “by their fruits you will know them.” Matthew and Marcus Aurelius were more or less contemporary so it’s not a surprise that a meme might have circulated from Palestine to Rome. The idea is probably timeless, in any event.
Time for me to look at myself! What fruit am I producing? Fortunately for those of us infused with the logos (that’s me, and you, and probably many other humans) we have the ability to retool and start producing different fruit. Different results. Results more satisfying to me.
The ones who cannot change and produce different results are the “cannot” or “will not” people. The number of “cannot” people is probably quite small. Almost everyone who is producing a life that is unsatisfactory to himself/herself is a “will not”.
If you will not look at yourself, your ideas, your actions . . . all with an open mind and willingness to change . . . you’re doomed. You are a rubber ducky floating down the creek.
I don’t want a rubber ducky life.
The hardest thing to do is be open-minded and honest with self when looking at self. The next hardest thing is taking a contrary action.
Except it’s not hard at all. Say three words out loud: “I was wrong.” Look how absolutely insignificant that sentence was. Now you’re a free man.
What is stopping you from saying those three words?