Happy Friday!
The weekend is knocking, autumn is settling in, and my favorite holiday is finally making its appearance on the horizon. Thanksgiving is just 41 days away! Forty-one days until turkey, stuffing, family, football, and the wonderful excuse to loosen your belt without giving two squirts.
The weather is playing its usual October tricks. A little rain, a few clouds, and the sun peeking around the corner. Let us cherish those brief moments of sunshine. Before long, Old Man Winter will be kicking down the door, and we will be begging that smiling sun to come back.
Today's Chalkboard offers a little wisdom worth pondering.
"We suffer more in imagination than in reality." Seneca
The ancient Stoic philosopher understood something about the human mind that remains true two thousand years later. Our imagination is a gorgeous gift, capable of creating dreams, inventions, and endless possibilities.
Unfortunately, that same imagination can construct suffering from events that couldn’t happen and probably never happen.
Fear borrows trouble from tomorrow and demands payment today.
The mind rehearses disasters, invents conversations, anticipates disappointments, and constructs entire tragedies. Reality, meanwhile, patiently waits for its turn.
Seneca was not suggesting that suffering is imaginary or that life's hardships are not real. He was reminding us that anticipation often adds a bullshit burden to whatever difficulties eventually do arrive.
There is a difference between preparing for tomorrow and being frightened by a tomorrow that exists only between our ears.
Perhaps wisdom is learning to recognize that difference.
The clouds may be gathering, but that doesn't mean a storm is coming, and sometimes, just around the corner, the sun is smiling.
Enjoy your Friday. Do not borrow tomorrow's troubles when there is still sunshine, shadows and gusto to find!
