No Blame

I started today in “The Daily Stoic [1].” I’m challenged to go without blaming a single person or thing. Instead, I should revert to all occurrences of the day resulting from my reasoned choices.

I won’t lie; this is a hard one for me. I have a severe distaste for injustice, especially for me. This little pocket rock couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. I have been struggling to escape a vicious cycle with a difficult person.

Yesterday, I remembered a hard-learned lesson, some people cannot or will not change. And if I’m ever going to stop circling in madness with them, it would appear I have to change. And not in a co-dependent, I’m the problem, and I must change for this toxic person kind of way.

What I mean is in a way that allows me to transcend something I cannot change. My view of how to deal with a difficult person. Do I continue to fight their nature, something they have no interest in developing or perhaps don’t currently have the capacity to do, or do I not need them to change for my own evolution? I believe the answer is to let them be what they are and continue my soul’s evolution.

The Stoic encourages us to attempt not to blame for the whole day. Suppose I can only make it part of the day, for an hour or ten minutes. I’m encouraged to step into a mind exercise to reroute patterns. Challenge accepted. I am adding this rock to my pocket.

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[1] Holiday, Ryan and Hanselman, Stephen. “October 3rd: A Mantra of Mutual Interdependence.” The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, Portfolio/Penguin An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016, pp. 296. Go to the Author’s site