Ideas from Candide by Voltaire.
This short story is a book I recommend everyone pick up. It is the story of misfortune followed by misfortune to show the reader all the miseries that fill our world. The story concludes by the main character meeting a man at complete peace living off simple means.
The strategy to this man's peace was to cultivate his garden. He did not concern himself with worldly affairs as they had nothing to do with him. Instead, he made sure that his garden flourished.
This is a metaphor for life. We should not focus our attention on externalities, namely, the mess of worldly affairs, but rather focus our attention on cultivating our own worlds; the ones we live in every second of our lives.
This is the advice that took my head out of the chaos, confusion, and fear pushed on modern man by the 24-hour media cycle. It is advice I give to anyone I see engrossed in, and sometimes paralyzed by, the state of worldly affairs.
The world is a messy place, always has been and always will be, so don't spend your precious gift of time dwelling over it.
Instead, come to understand that the only way to make the world any tidier is to focus on tiding your own life and making it a haven from the surrounding mess. Enough people do this and the world is tidied.
It is only in this haven that you will find peace. Focus on yourself, and making your mind and affairs as tidy as possible.
THE world has infinite suffering, but not YOUR world, YOUR world is your own, with it, create your own haven.
Carl Spitzweg - Der Gartenfreund - 1865
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Aesthetically
Ignite the fire of aesthetic aspirations within you, for greatness is born from admiration and pursuit of beauty.
Aesthetically
Ignite the fire of aesthetic aspirations within you, for greatness is born from admiration and pursuit of beauty.
