Diaries of a Budding Stoic

Letter III

It's extraordinary, this life I have been given. The ability of perception and contemplation surmounts to a series of choices - and from those choices, the capability to attain freedom. And not only have I been so graciously given this chance at tranquility and calm as a result of self-defining action, but God has forgiven me in all those times I have severed myself from the rest of humanity.

And when I say God, I mean Nature: the divine providence by which all things live. It is the force of all-encompassing production. Producing not just space and the bridges of fate that constitute the ensured progression of time, but also producing opportunity. For in every situation there is a given set of possibilities, as defined by the circumstances - however those circumstances are interdependent upon the simultaneous unravelings of each situation. The moments of the past, those leading up to, and those that define the active motions of any given thing come together to form an unbreakable bond and unity. While the events of any situation were not intended above any other, the potential occurances were among an equal plethora of potential possibilities. In every moment, any one of a given set of possibilities has an equal potential - simply for having membership among them - and so whatever path is chosen is the right one, because they are all the right one. All happennings are meant to occur in the sequence that they exhibit, no mattter how far two events may seem disconnected. The world is equal in its realm of potential, and yet unequal in its ramblings of events. But it is this inequality - the condition that only one event may occur within a given span of time - that gives meaning to it all. Not only this, but the actions of every individual have the capacity to direct what possibilities are chosen. Of course not all agents can affect all possibilities, but the impact of every being is there. Just as every order, every system, every cyclical tendency of the Earth, and every compounding inclination plays upon one another and themselves in a grand harmony of seemingly disconnected concordance, all coming together as one final wave of motions crashing towards the future, passing through all situations at once through this narrow passage that separates the infinite efforts of the past from the endless lineation of what is to come.

We are caught within that small space, but we get to see it unfold right before us and participate within it. Like watching water cascade from the great mountain rains, sifting through forests and drifting off the cliffs of a shoreline plains. We are droplets of water, witnessing the return of everything to the benevolence of Nature. Including ourselves.