I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget buying Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. The boys and I were in the San Francisco airport on our way out to Australia and I was in the mood for a good book for our long flight. We were passing time waiting for our flight and we popped into the bookstore. I knew what I was looking for and highly doubted I’d find it in the tiny airport bookstore with a very limited selection. The book I was looking for was almost 2,000 years old and wasn’t on the bestseller list. As luck would have it I found one lone copy buried off to the side of a shelf. Next thing I knew I had invested $11.96 in myself.
Fast forward to two plus years later and here I am spending time re-reading it for the umpteenth time. I am continually amazed at how often I find a new nugget of information that I somehow missed before. Sometimes there was an idea that made sense but I didn’t have the right experiences to provide context. Maybe I just wans’t ready for it the first few reads. Whatever the reason, I am continuing to learn each time I pick it up.
Over the past couple of years I’ve brought it along with me anytime I’ve travelled and am sure to pick it up at least a few times. It’s possibly my most prized travel possession. I’ve learned from it, lived life better due to it, found joy in it, created joy from lessons learned from it, and so many more things to learn from it. All that for less than $12.00; that’s a pretty solid investment!
Quick side note, what really caught my brain yesterday and today was the beginning of the book. To start Marcus shares what he learned from the most important people in his life and points out what he has learned from each of them. This process in of itself has had the gears in my head turning ever since. If I were to write this who would I write about? What would I credit them for? What an excellent thought experiment!
Thanks!!!