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The Wisdom of Insecurity

Alan Watts

“For the greater part of human activity is designed to make permanent those experiences and joys which are only lovable because they are changing. Yet the moment you arrest the flow and prolong a note or chord beyond its time, the rhythm is destroyed. Because life is likewise a flowing process, change and death are its necessary parts. To work for their exclusion is to work against life.”

—Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity


the place where we once had a picnic
is now underwater

that one thick branch
of the shade tree
is now hovering
over the rippling surface

its trunk submerged—
holding its breath
for us

Last updated: August 8, 2023