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This week's Japanese proverb is: 人事を尽くして天命を待つ (JIN-JI WO TSUKU-SHITE TENMEI WO MATSU). 人事/JIN-JI = human affairs or actions, 尽くして/TSUKU-SHITE = do to exhaustion, 天命/TENMEI = god's will or heaven's decree, and 待つ/MATSU = to wait. So these Kanji characters combine to mean that you can work hard and make a best effort to prepare, but there comes a point where you have to stop, and then wait to see how things play out. Old Japanese wisdom recognizes that there are things (like the force of nature) which just cannot be controlled by people, despite the best plans -- so, accept it. Similar Western sayings are: "Do your best, and leave the rest to fate", "Man proposes, God disposes", and "To strive is human, to reward is divine."

written by Goodfield