This too shall pass

Good or bad, one thing is true: “This too shall pass.”

Winter can suck the life out of you here in Northern New England. But it’s not dark at 4:30 PM any more. The sun is beginning to stay out a little longer each day. It’s still frigidly cold most mornings, and we have piles of snow, but it’s already mid-February. Next month the crocuses will come up, and soon after that, the daffodils.

I’ve been reading William Green’s remarkable study of highly successful investors, and he comes up with some remarkable wisdom. I’ve always struggled with the idea of nonattachment, but I found this passage particularly interesting:

This idea of nonattachment can sound cold or unnatural. But a recognition of impermanence has its benefits. For one, it's not just the good stuff (our youthful beauty, our loved ones, economic booms, and bull markets) that will fade away. The bad stuff (emotional and physical pain, lousy political leaders, recessions, and pandemics) will also pass. Given that everything changes, we shouldn't get too carried away when times are good or too despondent when they're bad.

William Green, Richer, Wiser, Happier, p. 81

The Stoics argue that we have very little control over life’s chances, except the way we choose to respond. If you can take the attitude that even bad things eventually pass, I think it makes bad things more bearable.

Easy to say, hard to put into practice.