Time to think…about living gracefully

“What if someone despises me? Let them see to it. But I will see to it that I won’t be found doing or saying anything contemptible. What if someone hates me? Let them see to that. But I will see to it that I’m kind and good-natured to all, and prepared to show even the hater where they went wrong. Not in a critical way, or to show off my patience, but genuinely and usefully.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

Love thy neighbour…even if you don’t actually like them! Treat people in the way you would like to be treated yourself…BUT don’t expect to be treated the same way in return. It is so easy to allow our emotions to provoke an aggressive or defensive response in ourselves, leading to actions that we later regret. In the words of Lao Tzu, ‘respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment’.

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash.