💾 Archived View for thatit.be › 2024-12-06-15-27-47.gmi captured on 2024-12-17 at 10:03:55. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I was out shoveling this morning. And this afternoon. More than a foot of snow had accumulated from yesterday to this morning. I was shoveling and thinking about the things I have to do today, and thinking about the time it took to shovel, and how much time I’d have to get everything done, and it occurred to me that I was almost nervous or worried about being able to get everything done. That’s pretty silly, I had many hours to do quite a few small tasks that wouldn’t take too long, in addition to needing to do work.
As the tiny bit of concern popped up in my mind and I wondered if there would be a better way to pass the time rather than shoveling, which made me think I hadn’t been shoveling long enough for it to work. That is, I hadn’t been doing it long enough to be resigned to the task in front of me. It occurred to me I wasn’t being present.
I had heard speakers mention the idea of being present and I couldn’t figure out what Stoic works it came from and I hadn’t a firm grasp of what it means to be present. Aside from paying attention to what’s happening, being present can be summed up as not being carried away or preoccupied by impressions and instead making deliberate choices by exercising reason and rational thought.
Then my thoughts drifted to that copy of Meditations I borrowed from the local library. It’s not the Hayes’ translation, I picked it up for a comparison since it was right there on the shelf next to other books I was looking for. And it occurred to me, the stoic principle of presence is actually touched upon in Book Two of Meditations, it just wasn’t very clearly defined and my grasp of it wasn’t great. But thinking about the shoveling while shoveling and discarding the tiny bit of worry I came to these conclusions: mainly that I wasn’t being present and that Book Two could really be summed up as how to be present. I’ll probably write more on that, but mostly I was just pleased with the thoughts.
Then I finished shoveling and got back to work.
The title is based on a related journal entry from earlier this year.
created: 2024-12-06
(re)generated: 2024-12-17