Reframe, Refrain

Aloha Web Traveler

Come rest on da beach:

"Man does not live by words alone

despite the fact that he sometimes has to eat them."

Adlai Stevenson

"A certain recluse, I know not who,

once said that no bonds attached him to this life,

and the only thing he would regret leaving was the sky."

Kenko Yoshida

"The longer we dwell on our misfortunes,


the greater is their power to harm us."



- Voltaire

Situations arise
and resolve
but stress is forever:
attaching to your gut,
pulling down your heavenly head.


Regretted & fretted actions
continue to ripple out
even after we regret
and forget
them.

We post-moderns are action people
if there's a problem
we DO something about it.

"Proactive = good,
passive = bad"


But I am realizing, as perhaps you suspect,
that 99% of the world's problems
come from doing -

and that refraining

is oft the best policy.


Like the hospital patient
whose friend came to visit,
the visitor a tornado of fidget:
plump the pillow!
call the nurse!
But instead of helping, it
only made the patient feel worse.


At last the ill patient
lost his patience
as he said to his busy friend:

"Thanks for coming to visit,
but don't just DO something
STAND THERE!"

And so should we all
stand where we are.

Glad you came by today
to stand with me!


Warmly, cloudia