Contrary to popular belief, it is in fact the *second* step that is the most important.

Apparently it was Confucius who said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Confucius was a pretty smart guy, so I assume that he knew - though he seems to have neglected to mention - that quite a bit of standing around doing nothing begins with a single step as well.

There's kind of a running joke in my family that when somebody asks you if you've made any progress toward a given goal and the answer (as it always is) is 'no', you look at that person with a look of exaggerated hopefulness and enthusiasm and say, "No, but I've been *thinking* about it!" This happens a lot, because in my family we are aways hoping- ineffectually - to fix ourselves.

Everybody knows that the first step to solving any problem is to have a plan. You develop a thorough understanding of the problem (through intense contemplation, which is the same as work) and then you develop a plan, a perfect, fool-proof plan, which you plot in great detail and perhaps - especially if it is a particularly daunting problem - map out in helpful diagrams with coloured pens. And then if anybody asks you if you've managed to solve the problem yet you say, all full of hope and enthusiasm, "No, but I've been *thinking* about it!" I do this a lot and I have to admit that it's rare that I ever get past the part with the coloured pens (that's my favourite part). Very few of these elaborate, fool-proof plans have ever made it from intention to implementation.

This has been on my mind lately, because I was sorting through some papers as part of my spring cleaning ritual (yes, I know) and I kept finding helpful little notes I had written to myself in moments of what I no doubt hoped at the time would turn out to be life-changing epiphany. They range from the practical - "*Always* sleep min. 8h", "Do yoga", "Take vitamins" - to the whimsically mysterious - "Love the dawn" and "Time is infinite, but you are not". By far the most useful and applicable of these little forgotten epiphanies was this: "Thinking is not doing".

Maybe it would help me to get a prominently-placed tattoo of this maxim. I probably won't, though. Probably you'll ask me next time you see me if I've gotten around to getting that tattoo yet and I'll say, "No, but I've been *thinking" about it!"

Sparrows don't care about our silly human problems.

One day a year or so ago, when I was in the middle of pretty much the shittiest period of my life thus far, bracing for the impact of a couple of really stupid decisions and trying to convince myself that it was all going to come out ok, I stopped by my friendly neighbourhood fry truck for my usual nutritious lunch. As I sat on some concrete steps, munching, and watched the sparrows going about their sparrow business, I thought to myself, "Someday, I 'll be a sparrow. I'll flit around, right here by this fry truck, puff up my feathers against the cold and sing for scraps of hot dog bun".

That was pretty much the most relaxing thought I've ever had. Now every time I get stressed about something, I just think about how little I'll care about that thing when I'm a sparrow and I feel better right away. I'm not necessarily recommending this as a stress management technique for others - particularly since it requires that you be completely irrational, which is something I'm a lot better at than most people - but it has never failed me yet.