SENECA, Letters from a Stoic, Letter CXXIII

"...nothing is burdensome if taken lightly,...nothing need arouse one's irritation so long as one doesn't make it bigger than it is by getting irritated."

One of the reasons that Seneca's words of advice are helpful and consoling is that he writes these words as much as instruction to his friend Lucilius as to himself. As to the context of this particular quote, Seneca has just arrived home from a journey to find that the baker has no bread and the cook is not prepared with any food. He says that he is "making the best of this slowness...by carrying on a conversation with myself." I have often behaved just like Seneca and sat down to write during moments of frustration. The activity of writing enables me to sort out the facts so as to not mentally dwell on any one sore point. Even at the worst of moments when I do go on for pages along the same frustrated theme, at some point the pen gives up on the tiresome topic and moves on to some glimmer of optimism, hope, or at least more distanced empathy.