Keep constantly in your mind how many doctors die after a lifetime of wrinkling their brows in thought over the sick; and how many astrologers die after predicting with much ceremony the death of others; and how many philosophers die after exhausting their minds with countless discourses concerning death and immortality; and how many military man die after killing so many people; and how many tyrants die after exercising their power over the lives of others with an insolent snort as if they themselves were immortal; and how many entire cities, Helice, Pompeii, Herculaneum and countless others have been destroyed.

So always keep in mind how short lived and insignificant human things really are. Yesterday a glob of mucus, tomorrow a corps, a pile of ashes. So pass this brief amount of time in accordance with Nature and dissolve graciously, just as a ripe olive falls to the ground perishing, praising both the earth that gave it life and the tree which nourished it.

What you just read was from Marcus Aurelius – one of those old Greek philosophers. How elegant. We have lots to learn from an olive huh?

Life’s insignificance (doesn’t mean bad) hit me after my mother passed away. I noticed that what is really left of her are brief-span of thoughts now and then. It is interesting how life demands that you get back to work. I get a thought of my mother then the phone rings and the thought goes away and I get thrown back in to the business of living. So consider this: When my mother was alive she had a lot of things that were important to her, just like any one else. I wonder is she would have made these important things significant if she really got that all that would be left of her would be bits and pieces of thought that lived in peoples heads. So live life two headed. One head that takes on life as if it is the most important thing in the world and the other that grounds you in insignificance by reminding you that at the end all there will be left of you are bits and pieces of thoughts in some peoples heads and nothing more. Rejoice….. Engage with passion and enjoy your days.