Just Jot January - 2018

Today's prompt for #JusJoJan coincides with #SoCS (Stream of Consciousness Saturday) also hosted by Linda G. Hill.  The prompt intrigued me since the instructions were:

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is as follows: read closely. When you’re ready to sit down and write your post, look to the publication (book, newspaper, permission slip from your kid’s teacher, whatever you find) closest to you, and base your post on the sixth, seventh, and eighth word from the beginning of the page. Enjoy!

I love that kind of mystery exercise.  Here are my words:

To Live Happily...  and the rest of the sentence...

...is an inward power of the soul.  - Marcus Aurelius

From the cover of the book "Positive Quotes for Every Day" by Patricia Lorenz.

To live happily! 

I didn't know who Marcus Aurelius was so I had to look him up (don't judge if you knew who he was).  Turns out he was a Roman emperor, the last of the so-called Five Good emperors, according to Wikipedia.  He was a practitioner of "Stoicism" (which I also had to look up).  I thought being "stoic" was being too serious or not showing any emotion.  I was correct about that, but I didn't realize that stoicism was an actual philosophy.  "According to its teachings, as social beings, the path to happiness for humans is found in accepting this moment as it presents itself, by not allowing ourselves to be controlled by our desire for pleasure or our fear of pain, by using our minds to understand the world around us and to do our part in nature's plan, and BY WORKING TOGETHER AND TREATING OTHERS IN A FAIR AND JUST MANNER. 

Did I shout that loud enough for Washington (or Mar-a-Lago) to hear?

So, also in my quest for the perfect me this year is being a part of the Creative Dream Circle with Andrea Schroeder. 

I actually drew up this "map" last February but it is still in my conscious mind and is the basis for the vision cards I made for this year. 

I love doing stuff like this.  Some may think it is silly but I believe that if you keep thinking about the positive ways to bring the things you want into your life, you'll get them.  "An inward power of the soul."  

Who wouldn't want "To Live Happily?"  

And that's my Stream of Consciousness.  Where is your mind taking you today?