“Just as we commonly hear people say the doctor prescribed someone particular riding exercises, or ice baths, or walking without shoes, we should in the same way say that nature prescribed someone to be diseased, or disabled, or to suffer any kind of impairment. In the case of the doctor, prescribed means something ordered to help aid someone’s healing. But in the case of nature, it means that what happens to each of us is ordered to help aid our destiny.”
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.8
We’re willing to do all sorts of things — things that are generally unpleasant or that we’d just rather not — if a doctor orders them.
Well what if nature orders something unsavory? What if the natural order of things (one of Seneca’s three prongs) requires something difficult of us, something that we don’t particularly want? What if fate has decided on certain events that we find distasteful, some sort of misfortune?
If this happens, the first thing to remember is that you can’t change fate, all you can do is embrace it. And even try to love it, as crazy as that might sound — if you can, it will lead to more contentedness and peace.
Then try shrugging and saying “Hey, nature’s orders!” in the same way that you might about a doctor’s orders — just in this case it’s coming from the natural world, to aid in the fulfillment of your destiny. It’s all you can do, after all.
