HeyJaredStray Reflections
And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself? - Rumi
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 14
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- Sep 27, 2026
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- Jul 5, 2026
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Don’t get conquered (opens the original)
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There are moments when anger feels entirely justified. Someone has been careless, disrespectful, unfair, or simply irritating. I can make a perfectly reasonable case for why I am angry. But that is probably the moment to be most suspicious of it.Marcus Aurelius wrote that anger “begins with madness and ends in regret.” I know the second part well enough. The sharp response feels satisfying for a few seconds. Then comes the discomfort of having behaved beneath myself. Sometimes even the humiliati
Just return (opens the original)
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I make returning to God more complicated than it needs to be.I know I have done something wrong. I replay what happened, feel bad about it, and somehow convince myself that this is useful. As though being disappointed in myself is a form of repentance.All the while, I could simply ask God to forgive me. Why don’t I?Maybe because I think too much of my own failures. I want to understand them, correct them, make sure they never happen again. But repentance does not require me to first become the p
The Stray Reflections audiobook is here (opens the original)
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I’m delighted to share that the Stray Reflections audiobook is now live.Something strange happens when you have more information. You don’t always become more certain. Sometimes you become less.More research means more evidence to weigh. More opinions mean more reasons to question your own. At some point, the problem stops being access to information. It becomes knowing what matters, and having the conviction to act on it.That’s what Stray Reflections is about: thinking clearly in a world with m
Faith over freedom (opens the original)
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My faith removes choices from my life.There are ways I cannot earn money. Things I cannot consume. Desires I cannot simply follow. Five times a day, whatever I am doing must give way to prayer. A portion of what I have belongs to someone else. Even my time, my body, my wealth are not entirely mine.There was a time when I might have seen all of this as restrictive. We are taught to think that freedom means having as many choices as possible. Do whatever you want. Become whoever you want. Arrange
Use yourself completely (opens the original)
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I keep thinking about how much time I’ve spent studying people I admire: borrowing ideas, trying different ways of doing things, learning by imitation. All of that has its place. But eventually you have to trust your own nature.Warren Bennis wrote it plainly: “The point is to become yourself, to use yourself completely—all your skills, gifts, and energies—in order to make your vision manifest.”Use yourself completely. Not become someone else. Use what’s already there.There are things that come n
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