Ebbs and Flows

The constant flux of life

Time is a river, a violent current of events, glimpsed once and already carried past us, and another follows and is gone.

- Marcus Aurelius

The above quote is from Marcus Aurelius's infamous book, Meditations. The book itself is a masterpiece but it was never meant to be.

Unlike Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic which is written in perfect prose surely meant for an audience, Meditations was a Roman Emperor’s personal diary. His thoughts and reflections were not meant for anybody else’s eyes but his own.

After his death, some clever bugger decided that people needed to see this instead of it being buried and who can blame them? This was the most powerful person on the planet at the time and unlike nowadays where even the president of the United States of America doesn’t have absolute power we can rest assured that his power was absolute and final.

However, in this diary, you wouldn’t have thought that was the case. He seemed to be in constant conflict with himself and his decision-making process. Leaning on his personal and Stoic principles, on his allegiance to Rome and how all 3 of them can form a symbiotic relationship.

No random actions, none not based on underlying principles.

Book 4: 2

How Marcus Aurelius dealt with change was that he tried to be indifferent about it. He understood that change is just stuff that happens to us and it is always within our control how we respond to it. How often have there been periods in our lives that we wished would remain as they are? Seemingly perfect moments but nonetheless they are moving, changing slowly until before you know it, before you realise have gone. Most people don’t like change. They like what is familiar and safe, what is known. But nothing stays the same forever. It’s not how nature intended things to be.

We cannot step into the same river twice. For it is not the same river and he is not the same man.

- Heraclitus

Life is in constant flux. It is just as futile to try and grab ahold of water as it is with life. We think we are safe from change but we are not. Just look back at the photos on your phone from a few years ago and you almost won’t recognise yourself. Did you realise yourself growing older?

So why not use change, slow change for the better? Why not try to use the river’s current to gently take you downstream, to a place you want to be, dream to be but are afraid of? Change doesn’t have to be this cataclysmic event. Just like the change in life, it can be gradual and unassuming, it doesn’t have to have the weight of a heavy-weight boxer’s punch behind it.

The choice is yours to make but know this, it is always your choice. Things happen to you in life and it may seem unfair but remember, just as those most special moments in life are fleeting so too are the moments cast in shade.

*Photo by Sindre Fs: