November 4, 2025
Seneca had a knack for distilling the human condition into a single, sharp line. Misfortune tests brave men, but the truth is, it tests everyone. The difference is in how we respond when things don’t go as planned.
There are moments when life knocks the wind out of you, the unexpected bill, the bad news, the argument you didn’t see coming. Those are the obvious tests. But the quiet ones might be even harder: the stretch of days when everything feels like effort, when small annoyances pile up, when your best intentions meet the stubborn resistance of real life.
Bravery isn’t always about standing tall in the storm. Sometimes it’s about standing at all. Getting up again. Folding the laundry when you’d rather not. Smiling at your kids when you’re running on fumes. Starting over when you don’t have much left to give.
Seneca’s wisdom reminds us that courage doesn’t begin when the battle does. It begins long before, in how we prepare ourselves to face the inevitable chaos that life brings. The brave aren’t unshaken; they’re just willing to keep walking while the ground trembles.
Maybe the bravest thing we can do is stop waiting for life to be easy and start finding peace in how we handle it when it’s not. Because if misfortune is the test, then grace, not victory, might be the real measure of passing it.
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