I thought I needed more willpower.

More motivation.

More discipline.

I didn’t.

Well,

maybe sometimes I do.

What I need is less.

Less distortion.

Less noise.

Less motion.

Not more effort.

More structured effort.

Regulation.

I don’t want to rule the universe.

I want to keep it from running me.

That’s how I uncovered the -straints.

I think of them as rules to govern.

A range of possibility.

A range of opportunities.

A range of motions.

In a word:

Regulators.

Constraint for my mind.

Sustraint for my heart.

Restraint for my body.

Three gentle limits.

Three ways of not doing.

Three refusals that give clarity room to emerge.

Each one refines the system enuf

for a signal to show up

in a world of too much toomuchness.

I’m trying to figure out

what not to do.