Deep Something

The Fortune Cookie Was Half Right

April 1, 2026April 1, 2026 B. John 45 Views 0 Comments mindfulness, Life Lessons, Letting Go, Perspective, Stoicism, personal growth

I cracked open a fortune cookie expecting the usual vague wisdom and got this instead: “Your next Chinese meal will bring you more cookies.” Not exactly life-changing. I laughed, told my husband I’d been handed a prank fortune, and almost tossed it aside. But then I flipped it over.

“A fresh perspective on life is near.” That one stuck. Because lately, something has been shifting. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just a quiet realization that time isn’t as endless as it once felt, and that maybe the hardest lesson isn’t holding on tighter, but learning when to let go. Read the full piece>>

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Wisdom: The Organizing Virtue

February 15, 2026February 15, 2026 B. John 294 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, wisdom, Practical Wisdom, Civic Leadership, Moral Philosophy, Donald Trump, Political Judgment, Appalachian State, Boone NC, Modern Stoicism

What happens when leadership confuses force with wisdom?

Learn a 3-step pause to outthink panic and regain control over decision-making. We are living in a moment when reactivity often masquerades as strength. Foreign policy escalates without proportion. Economic decisions shift with the winds of applause. Dissent is treated as disloyalty. But courage without wisdom becomes recklessness. Justice without wisdom becomes punishment. Temperance without wisdom becomes denial. Something essential is missing when judgment fails at scale.

In this new essay, I reflect on what Stoic wisdom actually looks like — not as abstraction, but as disciplined judgment under pressure. From sleepless nights of personal uncertainty to watching national decisions unfold, I explore why wisdom is the organizing virtue that keeps both a life and a nation from unraveling.

Read more in Wisdom: The Organizing Virtue.

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Stoic Practices: Negative Visualization

November 4, 2025November 4, 2025 B. John 429 Views 0 Comments mindfulness, negative visualization, Preparation, Gratitude, Resilience, Premeditatio Malorum, grief

What if imagining loss could make life feel fuller, not darker? The Stoics called it premeditatio malorum—the quiet practice of picturing what could go wrong, not to suffer in advance, but to steady the heart for when it does.

In this new essay, I write about sitting beside my mother near the end of her life, and later facing my own health scare. Both moments taught me that rehearsing misfortune isn’t about fear. It’s about gratitude. The kind that comes from realizing how much you already have.

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Living the Last Best Moment

September 30, 2025December 13, 2025 B. John 436 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, present moment, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joan Didion, Charles Taylor, attention

Greta Gerwig once said, “You don’t know when the last time of something happening is. You don’t know what the last great day you’ll spend with your best friend is. You’ll just know when you’ve never had that day again.” That line has echoed in me ever since I first heard it. It captures both the sweetness and fragility of the present moment.
The Stoics knew this well. Marcus Aurelius warned against drifting into tomorrow, reminding himself that life is lived only in the day at hand. Seneca told us that we waste time as if it were endless. For them, attention to the present was not a poetic thought. It was survival. It was also the way to live a life worth remembering.
I think of an afternoon long ago with my friend Jim, shooting pool at his parents’ house. Or a fall day on a golf course with my friend Mike, pausing to look over Moss Lake together. Neither seemed extraordinary at the time. Yet they have stayed with me as “last great days.” The lesson is clear: if I want to live fully, I must live here, in this moment, as if it could be the last best one.

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The View from Above

August 29, 2025November 30, 2025 B. John 2556 Views 0 Comments hospital, Wesleyan, Memento Mori, social holiness, Stoicism, Boone, Evening Reflection, Dichotomy of Control, View from Above, labyrinth

I walked the hospital garden and followed the path of grace. At the end a bronze plaque carried lines from Psalms nine and ten. Refuge for the oppressed. God hears the afflicted. The metal was warm under my hand. Nothing was fixed. Yet something in me settled enough to breathe.

The Stoics call it the View from Above. Rise in your mind. See the room, the floor, the building, the town, the small blue world. The pain stays real, but it finds its size. From there the next right act appears. Ask a clear question. Hold a hand. Eat. Pray. Sleep if you can. The practice pairs with the dichotomy of control and with evening reflection. It opens the frame, then helps you learn from the day.

Tomorrow I head to Boone while my sister and a caregiver sit with Mom. Those mountains have taught me to climb, look, and return. The Wesleyan way names that rhythm as grace. Action without contemplation is unrooted. Contemplation without action is inconsequential. In a brittle season for our republic, this practice steadies my voice and keeps my heart useful.

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The Graduation Gift

August 12, 2025August 15, 2025 B. John 2926 Views 1 Comment Stoic philosophy, high school graduation, life transitions, personal growth, Epictetus, appalachian state university, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca

A framed silhouette of my niece, standing before the mountains at sunset, carries a message for her high school graduation: “Behind you, all your memories. Before you, all your dreams. Around you, all who love you. Within you, all you need.” It is a blessing, but also a challenge — to live with gratitude for the past, purpose in the present, and trust in the strength we already carry. In its quiet way, it’s pure Stoic wisdom.

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Boone, Facebook, and Marcus Aurelius…Oh My

July 23, 2025July 24, 2025 B. John 1444 Views 1 Comment Boone, Marcus Aurelius, Inspiration, Seneca, NC, Modern Wisdom, Healing Places, Reflection, Appalachian State, Stoicism

I came across a meme that read, “There are two places you need to go often: The place that heals you. The place that inspires you.” It struck me deeply, because for me, one of those places is Boone, North Carolina, where I went to college. But as I reflected on that idea through the lens of Stoic philosophy, I realized the Stoics might offer a very different kind of guidance: to go inward. This essay explores the contrast, and surprising harmony, between modern healing and ancient inner retreat.