joy · you delight in having gained a thing · relationships · wife
what you just named
You came in joy, not pain: that you delight in having gained a thing, in your relationships — specifically with wife — and you reached for the Stoic voice first. That's what you've named. Listen now to what it answers.
- Stoic
Spirit
mind
The Sunday was easy because it was Sunday and you were both there and the laughter was available. Marcus, on a campaign tent floor, wrote to himself: soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a name or not even a name; but name is sound and echo. He was not being morbid. He was reminding himself that the easy laughter with his own household was the only thing the empire couldn't outlive him into. The savor is right. The trap is to schedule the next easy Sunday or measure all future Sundays against it. Let it have been Sunday. Let the next Sunday be its own.
heart
The Sunday was Sunday. Don't schedule the next one. Let it be what it is.
connection
You stand in the line of all who knew the easy laughter was the unschedulable gift — every husband whose Sunday afternoons through forty years included some that were easy and some that were not and who received each on its terms.
Action
Next Sunday, do not measure it against the last one. Be present to whatever it actually is.
Reference
Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a name or not even a name; but name is sound and echo.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.21
practice
Receiving each easy hour with her as the unschedulable gift; not measuring the next one against it
principle
The easy laughter is the only thing the years cannot outlive you into; honor by not gripping
value
Sundays as themselves, each one