The Daily Stoic - Here’s Where You’ll Find True Beauty

Episode Date: February 12, 2021

“As we’ve discussed before, John Adams was one of those people whose racing mind gave them little rest. He was always doing, doing, doing and more dangerously, always thinking, thinking, thinking. His friends saw the pain this caused him and he saw it himself. As he said many times, all he wanted was “tranquility of mind”—stillness—but it was elusive.”Ryan describes the beauty that surrounds us, and why it is the height of brilliance, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target. The new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stood Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us dailystowup.com. Here's where you'll find true duty.

As we've discussed before, John Adams was one of those people who's racing mind gave him little rest. He was always doing, doing, doing, and more dangerously, always thinking, thinking, thinking. His friends saw the pain that caused him, and he saw it himself. As he said many times, all he wanted was tranquility of mind, stillness, but it was elusive. Only later in life after the loss of his wife in the end of his career, was he able to slow down a little, only in the process of reading and rereading some of the classic texts of ancient Rome, that Adams finally began to achieve the mental breakthroughs he had craved for so long, and when he did, things began to change.

In 1819, the morning after a horrific march storm, Adams was hit with an epiphany. Despite the fact that the storm had ruined his farm's harvest, all he could see was beauty. He could see was beauty. He could see it in the utterly ordinary and plain winter landscape. As he wrote, the icicles on every sprig glowed in all the lustre of diamonds. Every tree was a chandelier of cut glass. I have seen a queen of France with diamonds upon her person, and I declare that all the charms of her face and figure added to all the charms of her face and figure added

to all the glitter of her jewels did not make an impression on me equal to that presented by every shrub. The whole world was glittering with precious stones. It's beautiful, isn't it? It's reminiscent of Marcus Aurelius' writing, so vividly of the ordinary way that baking bread splits in places in those cracks while not intended in the Baker's art, catch our eye and serve to stir our appetite, or as he said, the charm and a lure of nature's process, the stalks of ripe grain bending low, the frowning brow of the lion, the foam dripping from the bore's mouth. There's no anguish, despair, or discontent present in the marvelling mind. There's complete tranquility and stillness.

It's brilliance, and it's always within our reach. Beauty surrounds us. The flame dancing atop the candle's wick. The arm hairs standing up when it's a little colder than usual. The break lights moving in perfect unison when green turns yellow. The leaves floating, swirling, and bouncing off the sidewalk on a crisp fall morning. The rising sun's light piercing through your curtains and waking you up before the alarm

was supposed to, the beautiful and the simple, the extraordinary and the mundane, never assume to comprehend, instead marvel and delight. In this moment, nothing is better, Nothing is prettier. And life is good. Thanks for listening to another episode of The Daily Stoke. It's mind blowing to me now that we are well over 30 million downloads at this show. It means so much to me to have all of you listen. If you wanna help spread the word about the show,

please leave a review on iTunes or whatever your favorite podcasting platform is. It helps a lot. And then of course, click subscribe. That's how we know how many people are listening and that that makes sure you get the episodes as they come in. So thanks again for listening to The Daily Stoke Podcast. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts.

Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just going to end up on Page Six or Du Moir or in court. I'm Matt Bellissi. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wonder E's new podcast, Dis and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud. From the buildup, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feud say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn

out in personal as Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynn's lack of public support, it angered some fans, a lot of them. It's a story of two young women who had their choices taken away from them by their controlling parents, but took their anger out on each other. And it's about a movement to save a superstar, which set its sights upon anyone who failed to fight for Brittany.

Follow Dissentel wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music or The Wondery App.