#20 - It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it. Hans Selye

SELF-INFLICTED STRESS

My stress is built by my own hands.
I create projects with self-imposed deadlines,
then panic when those deadlines approach
and the work remains undone.
I spent years meeting the demands of others.
Now, when my time is under my own control,
I should rejoice in the absence of pressure.
What relief there would be
in eliminating the constraints of time
by submitting to a silent taskmaster.

#19 - The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance. Samuel Butler

SOLUTIONS

We are impotent to nature’s fury
and prisoners of disasters created by man.
But we are a greater people
when we strive for solutions
without arrogance getting in the way.

#18 - The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. Jean Paul

REFLECTIONS ON THIS AGING THING

I wake up wondering how life will change
on the morning I reach another age.
Will my steps be slower?
Will my mind slip and falter?

I’m in between milestones.
I find myself looking back
at the day I turned fifty.
The changes I feared never took place then,
and don’t appear to be taking place now.

But the pages of my life
turn a little faster than they used to do.
I feel a sudden urgency to
live these precious days to the fullest,
for fear of missing out on something special.

I am lucky.
I am blessed.
And I am moving forward
from the first day of my new year
to experience the joy this day brings
and for the thrill of the future yet to come.

#17 - I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship. Louisa May Alcott

STORMS TO TORNADOES

Storms roll across my landscape every day,
but they only become tornadoes
when I make the conditions right.