“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.” Horace (65-8 BC) Roman Poet

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Of course, that's easy to say when life is smooth and sweet. I find it less easy to remember this piece wisdom when I'm actually experiencing adversity. But that does not deny its fundamental truth. You only discover what you've got when you need to use what you've got. And the best stuff in you is revealed by the hardest times because we can all be good people when it's easy.

Next time, in the midst of troubles or strife, I'm going to ask myself what qualities I need to get me through this. Then I'm going to ask myself whether I'm prepared to summon them right now, when they're most needed, in order to help me - or a loved one - out.

I can't imagine I'll turn myself down...

A short break will follow...

... while my wife and I take a holiday. Back next weekend...

Find a direction

It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly.
Mabel Newcomber

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I see this as a description of life.

There's no point in working away for years and years only to find that what you're achieving isn't what you actually want.

I recently did a thought exercise where I imagined witnessing my own funeral; more to the point I heard what my family, friends, business associates and acquaintances said about me in their speeches. The point of the exercise was to ask yourself: what would you like to hear? How would you like them to remember you? Once I answered those questions I started to realise what kind of life I wanted to live.

Such insights give one direction, clarity...

We already know...

“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”
Dr Samuel Johnson

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It's strange how we always seem to know the 'right thing' when we're faced with it - even if we've consistently done the 'wrong thing' previously. It's almost as if the right thing is naturally in our brains but is sometimes deeply enough buried that it needs somebody to dig it out for us. The right thing always seems so obvious when we suddenly 'discover' it...

Dr Johnson's view of man is an optimistic one. He evidently believes that good and right behaviour are intrinsic to man's nature. I think I tend to agree with him.

Increase the peace

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish Writer

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This is quite amusing in its own way but it also tells us that instead of demanding everybody else shape up and do the right thing the one sure way of increasing the quantity of good in the world in to increase the quantity of good in oneself.

And, of course, leading a better life provides a better example. Some of what you do right will rub off on others...

Grief

"Grief is the price we pay for love."

Queen Elizabeth II

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I saw this today on the Grosvenor Square Memorial Garden in London. The Garden commemorates the thousands murdered on September 11, 2001, in the US. It's a profound message contained in just a few words and probably sums up the ultimate tragedy of existence: love leads to pain and the better the love the greater the pain.

Is it, then, better not to love?

We are what we repeatedly do

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

Aristotle

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There are so many lessons in this short quote. That virtue and excellence are results rather than sources is an interesting idea...

But most profoundly Aristotle points out, in effect, that we aren't determined by our occasional actions but our consistent ones. One-off trips to the gym do not make us athletes; only occasionally telling the truth does not make us honest.

And, perhaps as fundamental, simply announcing that we are honest or caring or hard-working or whatever attribute we wish for ourselves does not make it ours. It is only in the doing that we experience the being.