We make such a fuss about living. We worry and we frown. We look to wars and genocide. We look to hunger and poverty and the hatred. And the almost universal ecocide of our planet. And we despair. What can we do? How should we live? Should we live lives of service to others? Should we retire to a holy mountain ashram? What about money, and our addiction to jalapeno potato chips.? And oh yes, what about our… relationships! Below are two lovely answers to all these thoughts:

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

– Walt Whitman
Song of the Open Road

“How do you do Nothing?” asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time.

“Well, it’s when people call out at you just as you’re going off to do it:
‘What are you going to do, Christopher Robin’,
and you say,
‘Oh, nothing’,
and then you go and do it”.

“Oh, I see,” said Pooh.

“This is a nothing sort of thing that we’re doing now”.

“Oh, I see,” said Pooh again.

“It means just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”

–A.A. Milne
The House at Pooh Corner