On this day in AD 180 the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius died aged 58. He is chiefly remembered today for his philosophical writings as a follower of Stoicism.

His Meditations were initially addressed ‘To Myself’ and are a series of thoughts and observations for his own guidance and improvement, mainly on how to stay calm and focused in times of stress and turmoil.

Here is a poem on staying calm, Hard Times, by another deep thinker – Rabindranath Tagore:

Music is silenced, the dark descending slowly
Has stripped unending skies of all companions.
Weariness grips your limbs and within the locked horizons
Dumbly ring the bells of hugely gathering fears.
Still, O bird, O sightless bird,
Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings.
It’s not melodious woodlands but the leaps and falls
Of an ocean’s drowsy booming,
Not a grove bedecked with flowers but a tumult flecked with foam.
Where is the shore that stored your buds and leaves?
Where the nest and the branch’s hold?
But O my bird, O sightless bird,
Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings.
All that is past: your fears and loves and hopes;
All that is lost: your words and lamentation;
No longer yours a home nor a bed composed of flowers.
For wings are all you have, and the sky’s broadening courtyards,
And the dawn steeped in darkness, lacking all direction.
Dear bird, my sightless bird,
Not yet, not yet the time to furl your wings!

 

Today I will try to deal with all life’s problems in a calm and sensible manner.