From the year 165 an epidemic swept through the Roman empire that cost millions of lives, probably including Marcus Aurelius' co-emperor. For fifteen years Marcus ruled an empire in permanent crisis: plague, war on the Danube, an empty treasury. He sold palace goods to fund the state rather than raise taxes, and got up every morning to do what that day asked of him. In his army tent at night he wrote notes to himself, never meant for publication: reminders of what was his and what was not. We know them as the Meditations, perhaps the most read Stoic book, written in the worst years of his life.
Not one single dramatic event, but fifteen years with no end in sight. A crisis that lasts that long does not wear out your courage but your routine.
The plague, the war and the duration: not his, and he never pretended otherwise. His daily order, his decisions and his evening notes: his. The Meditations are not a book about the crisis; they are the tool with which one man carried it.
Which long-lasting situation in your life asks not for a heroic deed but for a sustainable routine? And what is your version of the evening note?
Yours, Not Yours · A Stoic practice ground · All cases