A Man Among Men

"Do not wish that all things will go well with you, but that you will go well with all things."

-Epictetus

the shifting sands of time

We do not choose the hand we are dealt.

We do not decide the circumstances of our birth.

The time, place, and conditions of our arrival are not ours to command.

Even as we move through life, much remains beyond our will.

Health may falter, wealth may vanish, and fortune may turn without warning.

These things bend to forces larger than our will.

It is not wisdom that demands that the life must align with your wishes.

The world is not constrained to ask for our consent.

Not all will be well, and not all can be made well.

Accept what cannot be changed, without resentment.

Prepare for what may come. Steadily, and without fear.

Where you do have power, use it fully.

In both the small things and the grand.

Do not measure your life by outcomes you cannot secure,

but by the integrity with which you meet them.

Hold steady in success and in loss.

Neither defines you unless you allow it.

Stand firm amid uncertainty.

Keep your bearing when others lose theirs.

Endure without bitterness.

Persist without pride.

Let nothing external make you less than what you have chosen to be.

Do this, and you will possess something no circumstance can take.

You will be fit to stand among kings, without envy and without fear,

A man among men.