Sunday: Last day, Nature’s way
Late start, finally. Straight into the morning text and I realise, this book has so much Marcus Aurelius, that it may as well be called, “Marcus Aurelius, a guide to Stoicism”, but that’s besides the point. Today’s text is more about, I feel, everything happens within nature and that everything that is done, overall, will maintain nature and it’s order, that you a part of something bigger than yourself. I guess that is true, we are people and can choose what we do, for the most part, but we do live on a planet that determines what happens to us. If the planet dies, we die along with it, for now at least.
I found that today’s exercise had a lot in common with mindfulness, not Stoic mindfulness, but just mindfulness, being aware of you and your surroundings. To stop and listen to the world around you once in a while, instead of ignoring it, to not just be centred on yourself the whole time. The world is so much bigger than just the one activity that you are doing at a certain time, but usually, that’s what our whole world is. I really liked this exercise and felt that it was a nice relaxing one to end the week on.
The evening text is very much about us having come from nature and that in the end we join nature. Thinking about the end of it all at the end of the week, very fitting and the point is quite true. Reflecting on stepping outside of myself throughout that day, I don’t feel as though I did a great job at that, a few times, when I was outside with my cat, I stopped and really observed the world around me. In the end I feel as though I could have done quite a bit more to be Stoic in Stoic week, but it was nice and maybe even a little enlightening to have a go.
- Just a side point that I have noticed throughout the handbook, which is a few references to gods, I didn’t think that Stoicism believed in higher beings that could potentially influence or control us.

