We call loose money “change”.
Yet imagine seeing it as a reminder of the philosophies you want to live by?

I don’t know what possessed me, but I cleaned out the forbidden drawer in the kitchen last weekend, (you know the one where everything gets tossed?)
And some crazy objects live there!  Golf balls (when we don’t play golf), keys to nowhere, hundreds of silver coins.

In today’s cashless economy, it strikes me that we rarely see a coin, let alone touch one. And it reminds me of a fun fact I think you’ll find interesting. Ancient coins were not only currency, but cues for philosophies and standards to live by.

Stoicism is school of philosophy that dates back to ancient Greece and Rome in the early parts of the 3rd century BC.  While you may not know it, you’ll be familiar with some of its teachings.

You recall the saying – it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do with it? Well that principle stems from the Stoics:

“You have power over your mind – not outside events.  Realise this, and you will find strength.”
– Marcus Aurelius

Emperor Marcus Aurelius’ meditations and journals have guided countless leaders, including Nelson Mandela who read and studied his journals as a daily practice over his 27 years in prison.

Below is a picture of one of the coins of that time.  On it is written: Amor Fati (Latin for: “a love of fate”).  This is a mindset that you take on for making the best out of anything that happens: Treating every moment—no matter how challenging—as something to be embraced, not avoided.

This practice is easier said than done, and that’s why meditations and journaling are daily rituals of applying the teachings, not simply reading them once and forgetting about them. This coin is not about hapless surrender, but discerning what you can control and learning to embrace what you can’t. The flame on the front of the medallion is inspired by Aurelius’s words: 

“a blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.”

– Marcus Aurelius

An idea to take from this into your day:
Each of us has a store of coins hidden in places we have forgotten.
Spend them well.