Our favorite guest blogger David Erskine returns with guidance grounded in Stoic principles.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Dr. Kathy Allen asked me to write a post for this blog. Since then I’ve written here through challenging times in a changing world.
Recently, I read Courage Is Calling and Discipline Is Destiny, two books by author and modern day philosopher Ryan Holiday. In my last post, I talked about what his works taught me about joy. As I mentioned then, Holiday also wrote the book Daily Meditations which offers one Stoic thought for each day of the year. It’s part of my daily routine along with stretching, doing yoga and running.
It’s important that I exercise myself spiritually on a daily basis as well as physically. Here are a few takeaways from these two books that have helped me on my journey.
Courage Is Calling
Courage Is Calling features a chapter called Fear is Showing You Something. In this chapter, we learn a basic rule about facing our fears. In the book, Holiday writes:
Our fears point us, like a self-indicting arrow, in the direction of the right thing to do. Fear alerts us to danger, but also to opportunity. If it were not scary, everyone would do it. If it were easy, there would not be any growth in it.
The real leaders in history, people like Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Eleanor Roosevelt, all faced fear. As I see it, every day when I wake up, there will be new challenges and opportunities to face my fears.
Recently, for example, I was training for the Dipsea Race, the oldest trail race in America. Although I had run it eighteen times and knew the trail very well, I wasn’t sure whether I could do a two-hour training run. But once I began, my fear gave way to the pure joy of being in the moment and celebrating the trail.
Embrace your chances to face and overcome your fears, because we all have opportunities to do so day in and day out.
Discipline is Destiny
In Discipline Is Destiny, The Power of Self Control, Holiday teaches us that a person who understands the value of discipline is a person who is comfortable being uncomfortable. This isn’t about needless suffering or hurting yourself. It’s about continuing to encourage ourselves to get out of our comfort zone. I try to run (full disclosure, for me it’s a slow jog!) the Dipsea Race every year. As I’ve gotten older, it has taught me even more how to be uncomfortable and still celebrate what I experience.
The Dipsea Race starts in downtown Mill Valley, CA, and ends 7.5 miles later at the Pacific Ocean. It’s the second-oldest marathon behind the Boston Marathon. The first running was on November 19th, 1905. It includes 692 steps at the beginning, and the first four miles are uphill until you reach Cardiac Hill and the Pacific views. It takes discipline and training throughout the year, but it’s a celebration of running through the Muir Woods among the giant Redwoods.
I have to stay present and focus on each step because the trail itself is covered in roots, rocks, and poison oak. I take in the scenery and the experience of being alive with every footfall. It’s not easy or comfortable, but it exercises more than just my body. It teaches me to live in the moment and to be courageous and disciplined.
Final Note: Ruth Asawa Shines Like the North Star
Not long ago, I saw an exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Ruth Asawa, a gifted Bay Area sculptor. It truly and meaningfully changed me. When I woke up that day, I had no idea what the next 24 hours would bring, but I’m grateful it led me to Ruth’s art. Her experience exemplifies everything I’ve tried to write about today—wisdom, courage, and discipline. Ruth grew up in an internment camp in California during the late 1940s, and her journey to becoming a gifted artist began under those conditions. Finding the courage to create while living without freedom must have required being present with fear on a daily basis and accepting the moment, just as Stoics do. Ruth Asawa guides me like the North Star. Her life and work are powerful reminders that we can find beauty in the most unlikely places if we bravely grow through discomfort.
David Erskine
World Traveler, Poet, Actor, Taxi Driver, Author, Tech Sales Director, Dipsea Survivor, and Blogger
If you enjoy David’s posts, check out his new book Fifty Poems Five Decades Fifty Thousand Miles, available now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
