Love Your Lot

Prevalent among Stoic themes is acceptance, not of the woe-is-me relegation variety, but of the considered recognition that what is meant to be in the present moment is what is. And in every passing moment, we have the choice to rest contented or conflicted.

While it bears emphasizing that what is (read: what exists, what is true) presently may not be what will always be, the Stoic does not cling to this. The Stoic clings, instead, to what the moment requires of her and to how she is meant to be enriched by it.

To "accept," in etymological truth, is to willingly receive, to welcome, to agree with. Book VI of Meditations sees Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius punctuate the idea of active acceptance with the advisement to "adapt yourself to the circumstances in which your lot has cast you; and love these people among whom your lot has fallen, but love them in all sincerity."

Love what you've chosen, and as for what you haven't chosen, choose to love what it can make you. Love the process of learning, and of becoming the more realized, post-revelation version of you. Love that there not being another you means you have the opportunity to be the best one. Love that your unique contribution can only be made by you, and make it all the more. Love your lot, and remember that you're in it, too.

This is not a thin encouragement to smile through it, or to feign joy while in denial; it is a call to thoughtfully identify the good, the useful, the beneficial, and to consciously learn from the rest.

In the loving and learning is how we live.

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