#006: A Gift From Marcus Aurelius

Today I want to give you a gift from Marcus Aurelius—a way to start your mornings.

Marcus Aurelius says, say this to yourself in the morning:

I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them because of their ignorance of what is good and what is evil. But I have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful and of the bad that it is ugly.

I also understand the nature of him who does wrong and know that he is my brother, not because he shares the same blood or seed with me, but because he is a partaker of the same intelligence and of the same portion of the divinity.

I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly. I cannot be angry with my brother, nor hate him or sever myself from him, because we are made for co-operation, like feet, hands, eyelids, and rows of the upper and lower teeth.

To act against one another, then, is contrary to nature; it is acting against one another to be angry and turn away.

Practice starting your day with this passage until it becomes part of you.

Have a wonderful week.