Meditations #8

 Be like the headland against which the waves break and break: it stands firm, until presently the watery tumult around it subsides once more to rest.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four

The more I've been depressed and beatdown I guess it's not surprising that it leads to me turning more and more to the Meditations. This is a particular passage that I've always been drawn to, although maybe not to my advantage. One of my failings over the years has been my inability to ask for help, to seek aid when I was at the end of my tether; I'm a little better about it now, although not great. In my seemingly endless parade of medical visits this year there have been a couple when I needed someone to drive me, and both times it was all I could do to actually ask a friend for a ride. This is absurd, of course, because I have amazing friends who are consistently supportive, but it's still an issue. Growing up I was raised to believe that asking for help was a sign of weakness - thus, I guess, my magnetic draw to this passage. However, if you're that "headland," then maybe you won't be let down, although I've let myself down enough over the years.