Finished reading Donald J Robertson’s [Stoicism and the Art of Happiness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17841317-stoicism-and-the-art-of-happiness). A pretty easy read and good introduction to modern Stoicism. If I had to give it one criticism I’d say it is a tad repetitive, I would imagine partly because it’s part of a Teach Yourself series. I will probably read it through again in a bit more detail in due course.Delving into Stoicism, I’d not realised at all that it has experienced a resurgence in the last few years. Which I’m glad about because given I have a pretty contrary nature, I will often shy away from something if it’s currently a ‘thing’. The impression I get is, like anything that gets into the public imagination, it has attracted the genuinely inquisitive, but also bandwagoners. It also has its critics and I’m very happy to read well-reasoned arguments pointing out its flaws as I wouldn’t want to accept an idea without looking at it from all angles. And I’d rather read something of that nature than articles of the cringe-inducing [‘mind hack’](https://thriveglobal.com/stories/stoicism-ancient-mind-hack/) variety. Stoicism has a lot going for it but also many questions. Which is fine.
Author: Stephen James
Did [Axel Scheffler](https://axelscheffler.com) invent guinea pigs?
I have ordered a handheld recorder.I often use my phone to record birdsong or ambient sounds but obviously the quality is not great. Field recording appeals and I’d like to ‘collect’ sounds more. The kit that is coming means I can dip my toe into it a bit more and make some better quality recordings, all without spending vast amounts upfront.
My wife and I had the day off so we walked around Westhay Nature Reserve. So many warblers and so much sound! Numerous sightings, the most notable of which were the first hobby, common whitethroat and swifts of the year, plus house martins and a redpoll. Heard about 3 cuckoos. And good to see several pairs of great crested grebes and their nests. With all the busyness of late, it was good to have a chance to catch up and talk over a few things. 
I have this weird thing going on with the blog and Netlify. When I upload a post to GitHub, Netlify is set to deploy automatically. Now, the auto deploy occurs but doesn’t load the post. So I have to trigger a deploy manually, which works sometimes but not always. Hmmmmm. Time to get onto the Netlify forum.
I use [Drafts](https://getdrafts.com) every day. One of the many frequent tasks I use it for is saving links to articles. I’ve only just discovered that if I select some text in said article it gets saved in the draft as well. That is *so* useful – how did I not know this before!?
Very early to bed last night so only saw the verdict this morning. Guilty on all counts. I really wasn’t confident of which way it would go. I am relieved that it is this way. Even if it is too much of a stretch to say this is the beginning of a change, I hope that it is the beginning of the beginning.
I’ve learnt that the underlying principles of CBT come from Stoicism. I can’t recall where I read that now, but I’ve spent the last few days down the Stoic rabbit hole. I’ve binge-listened to a number of podcasts on the topic. I’ve made a list of books both contemporary and classical to read. To start me off I’ve bought Donald J Robertson’s [Stoicism and the Art of Happiness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17841317-stoicism-and-the-art-of-happiness?from_search=true). It’s at the self-help end of the spectrum but because the author is a psychotherapist it goes into how CBT and Stoicism relate to each other. Although I don’t think CBT and I [got along too well](https://strandlines.blog/998-2/) when I had my course of therapy last year, the applied rationality appealed to me. In addition, I’ve been dipping my toes into the world of philosophy. So to discover that the two areas of thinking intersect has really piqued my interest.
I’ve made a rudimentary [archive page](https://strandlines.blog/archive/) for the blog. Largely for my own benefit as I had no way to search through posts quickly. When I get a moment I will create a link for the home page and spend some time tidying it up, adding pagination etc.
Met up for a picnic and walk with friends yesterday. A somewhat chilly picnic but it warmed up as the afternoon went on. Just a relief to be able to get out and meet up. Quite busy, everyone enjoying their freedom but it was interesting how people were considerate, made an effort to maintain social distancing and most noticeably, seemed rather quiet and tired. Like we have all come out of our burrows, bleary-eyed and blinking in the sunshine.