John Singer Sargent, 1882, El Jaleo
Circumstance, Meaning

Embracing Our Roles

What is our role? Like actors gracing the stage, every day we wake to a role; or to be more accurate, various roles. Quotes from Shakespeare, Herbert & more.

Caravaggio, 1597-99, Narcissus
Circumstance, Meaning

Get out of Your Own Way

Get out of your own way. Once the obstruction is released there is life that will flow. And this is the truth. Life still exists beyond what hinders us. With quotes from Tolstoy, Descartes, Schuller & Seneca.

Temperance bearing an hourglass; detail Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good Government, 1338
Exploring Philosophy, Virtue

A Tale of Temperance

In recent history, the virtue of temperance has been associated with strict asceticism. A joyless lifestyle, filled with self-deprivation and suppression. But temperance was never meant to be an extreme. When we look further back in time, we find its essence and purpose. Quotes from Aristotle, Aquinas, Seneca & more.

Friedrich Justin Bertuch, 1806, Bilderbuch für Kinder
Circumstance

A Note to the Wounded

And to the wounded- there will be further battles, but we shouldn’t live in fear of returning to the trenches. Quotes from Aristotle, Keats, Lewis & Chapin.

'A tree with a path and a bay' 1976, by M.A.C.T.. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY
Exploring Philosophy, Meaning, Virtue

C. S. Lewis and the Law of Nature

In his book ‘Mere Christianity’, C.S Lewis speaks about the ‘Law of Right and Wrong’ or the ‘Law of Nature’. “…human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it.”

Pablo Picasso, 1904, The Frugal Repast. The Met. © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Circumstance, Meaning, Virtue

A Policy of Appeasement

“Blessed is he, who has learned to bear what he cannot change, and to give up with dignity, what he cannot save.” We take on the responsibility of appeasing someone’s feelings, foolishly attempting to control something we can’t. Quotes from Schiller & Huxley.

William Merritt Chase, c.1887, Young Woman Before a Mirror
Circumstance, Meaning, Virtue

Listening to Low Self-Esteem

Jane Austen in 1814 said; “We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be”. Instead of believing that feelings of low self-esteem must be cast away immediately, first hear what they have to say.