I took a walk today. It was cool outside and I walked along the side of the lake here in our local town. I felt the breeze and could smell the damp ground by the lake. It is in these times that I am reminded of the unity of everything around us, how we are all bound together by one cosmos. I took a moment to look at the grass and stare out at the lake. I am asked sometimes how it is that Stoic philosophy brings me peace. If I was compelled to answer it would be this. It is in the knowledge that my place in the world is not random and that the same reason which allows me to pen these words is the same that allows the sun to set and the stars to burn. I am connected to something much larger than my little corner of existence. I am stardust but also the dust in the corner of my bookshelf. When I die that will not change, in fact I will return all of this conglomeration of bone and sinew back to where it came from and be free of its restrictions. I will return to reason.