Service

“One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it down to his account as a favour conferred. Another is not ready to do this, but still in his own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor, and he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know what he has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and seeks for nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season”

Excerpt From: Marcus Aurelius, 121-180. “The Meditations.”

Verdun

Today I left Paris for Verdun. It still feels pretty strange travelling by myself so far away from home.

Verdun is beautiful, everything is so green and the hills in the distance are beautiful. You don't really get to see that in Perth and that's exactly why I'm here - to get this sort of breath-taking experience :D

The only thing that sucks is the time zone difference.. It's hard to keep in contact with home unless I'm out (where I'm busy) or I'm home (when he's sleeping)

Tomorrow I get to spend a day touring the battlefields and the memorials of the battle of Verdun. Feels like I've been waiting for this moment for so long, yet it still surprises me that I'm doing it now.

I guess this is what it feels like when you can stop dreaming and start living :D

Peace out!

Meditations

This day I shalt have to do with an idle curious man, with an unthankful man, a railer, a crafty, false, or an envious man; an unsociable uncharitable man. All these ill qualities have happened unto them, through ignorance of that which is truly good and truly bad. But I that understand the nature of that which is good, that it only is to be desired, and of that which is bad, that it only is truly odious and shameful: who know moreover, that this transgressor, whosoever he be, is my kinsman, not by the same blood and seed, but by participation of the same reason, and of the same divine particle; How can I either be hurt by any of those, since it is not in their power to make me incur anything that is truly reproachful? or angry, and ill affected to- wards him, who by nature is so near unto me? for we are all born to be fellow- workers, as the feet, the hands, and the eyelids; as the rows of the upper and under teeth: for such therefore to be in opposition, is against nature; and what is it to chafe at, and to be averse from, but to be in opposition?