I still have Meditations on my desk - it’s centering for me. I opened to a random page and read this passage which you’ve likely seen written by me multiple times.
In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them.
But when they obstruct our proper tasks, they become irrelevant to us - like sun, wind, animals. Our actions may be impeded by them, but there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacles to our action.
The impediment to action advances action.
What stands in the way becomes the way.- Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Book 5, #20.
You likely have read the “impediment to action advances action, w hat stands in the way becomes the way” quote multiple times from multiple sources; it’s a popular Stoic quote. After re-reading Marcus’ entry, I think we are missing a key part of the idea.
We can adapt and accommodate.
We can = have the ability, have the option, have the skill, capable of executing.
You have the ability to choose to adapt and accommodate to what impedes your action. You can also get frustrated and decide to give up. But, when we give up, all that we’re doing is denying ourselves the opportunity to do good for others.
When you next hit that brick wall, or when life throws you lemons, or when your job is on the line - accommodate and adapt. See the beauty in that new constraint.
Don’t let anything get in the way of you serving others.
