After my Dad died I did a lot of reading. One of the books that I found was by Helen Keller, titled "Bereaved". In it she wrote a lot of inspirational quotes, entries etc about coping with lose. I found two especially moving and seemed to fit in with AOL. They are as follows:

From Bereaved by Helen Keller (1929), “We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world—the company of those who have know suffering. When it seems that our sorrow is too great to be borne, let us think of the great family of the heavy-hearted into which our grief has given us entrance, and, inevitably, we will feel about us their arms, their sympathy, their understanding.”
“Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the
world, So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain.”

According to Seneca, it is in serving others that we find our deepest satisfaction and fulfillment. Perhaps it is while we serve others that we discover our truest self. However you look at it, one does have a tendency to forget their own heartache and worries, when concentration is on others.

This from Plutarch: “Diogenes, the cynic, when a little before death, he fell into a slumber, and his physician rousing him out of it asking whether anything ailed him, answered: ‘Nothing, sir, only one brother anticipates another: Sleep before ‘death’”. It is well to look upon Death in this friendly, everyday way. Sleep we welcome every night, knowing from experience that there is nothing to fear. Then why should we fear the coming our other Brother—Death?”

While I am still contemplating my personal AOL I know that the gift of books will be included somehow. Personally, I love to read and I would encourage anyone and everyone to take up the book for entertainment, self-education, and it's a great stress-reliever.

I really enjoyed reading about Seneca in The Practice of Virtue, by Jennifer Welchman and The Stoic Art of Living by Tom Morris. That's what I did this weekend.