“Think of the whole universe of matter and how small your share. Think about the expanse of time and how brief – almost momentary – the part marked for you. Think of the workings of fate and how infinitesimal your role.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
It is easy to blow things out of proportion and to jump to conclusions without checking the evidence of how things really are. Driven by emotional thinking and fuelled by our set of values about what we think is important in our lives, we wrestle with the wrongs and injustices we perceive have been done to us, and we revel in the glory and fortunes of success.
All this too shall pass. The moment is ephemeral and the consequence insignificant in the scale of things, the bigger picture, the greater purpose. This is not adopting a fatalistic attitude, believing that whatever happens is predetermined, but it does demand realism and the courage to accept what is not in our control.
