What Do You Want To Hold On To?
It can be seen as both impressive and unsurprising that Marcus Aurelius, emperor through one of Rome's most tumultuous periods, maintained an epithet-filled journal to himself with reminders of the people he cared for, the fleeting nature of time, and the nature-endowed ability to endure. Now known as Meditations, this journal serves as a reminder to many of the importance of grounding oneself in matters unchanging.
It's with great purpose that Meditations, Aurelius's journal, begins with a series of acknowledgements where the emperor expresses gratitude to specific people in his life for specific reasons.
From the example set by his grandfather Verus on "nobility of character," to learning from his mother to not even contemplate wrongdoing, to Diognetus from whom he learned to not "obsess over trivialities," to Apollonius who taught him to trust in reason as the only worthy guide, Aurelius anchored himself in matters unchanging. He consciously identified and clung to virtues that would only serve him, no matter the tribulations that would inevitably lie ahead.
Marcus Aurelius knew, come what may, what he wanted to hold on to. It behooves us to define this for ourselves, too.
In times of personal uncertainty, our most productive pursuit is that of which we are certain—that is, the people, the rituals, and the ideas that you want brought with you, no matter what a chapter brings. Put another way, when unclear on where you're going next, who do you want to be going there with? When you're unsure of what's around the corner, who (and how) do you want to be when you arrive to it?
Who and what from here is worth taking with you there?
Hold on accordingly.
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