Sit Quietly

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by Nanao Sakaki

If you have time to chatter,
Read books.
If you have time to read,
Walk into the mountain, desert, and ocean.
If you have time to walk,
Sing songs and dance.
If you have time to dance,
Sit quietly, you Happy Lucky Idiot.

for Seraphina Tarrant on her graduation from UCLA!--although to the unperceptive eye there does not appear to be much "silent solitude" around you, some of us think we know better. I thought of you when I read this poem. You do all recommended activities in abundance and then some. I am including a picture of a place where we both walked into the ocean, Manly Beach NSW.



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