The Tao of V

The soft overcomes the hard.
The slow overcomes the fast.
Let your workings remain a mystery.
Just show people the results.


I found that quote pinned on a bulletin board at the Taoist Tai Chi Society nearly 20 years ago, and spent a decade trying to find the version of the Tao Te Ching it had come from. I found it in Stephen Mitchell’s translation, someone who deeply understands it’s principles, yet speaks them with a modern voice. it has been my favourite source of wisdom, insight, and perspective ever since.

I’ve been having a lot of conversations lately about humility, leadership, selflessness, and non-striving. Showy glory versus moving behind the scenes and just getting it done. Lines from the Tao Te Ching keep coming to mind, but in conversations with people who have never even cracked a spiritual text.

So, I’ve recently bought my friend a copy of this book, but know it would be a cruelty to just give him all this metaphorical verse and set him loose. Glancing at it, he’s already said: but it looks like poetry, I don’t like poetry.

So to make this book a little more palatable to my friend, and a chance for you all to read along, I’m going to spend the next few months covering all 81 chapters, with a little expounding on what they mean to me and what I’ve come to understand of them so far (or what I’m still trying to figure out).

Go grab yourself a copy of this book (go on, you’ve got time, this project will take me well into the Fall) and read along with my friend and I, posting your comments and thoughts, as I share the Tao according to me – the Tao of V.

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Day 44 – relationship insights from Bull Durham

So, I’ve been watching a lot of movies in my downtime. Too dreary outside, and brain still too fried to read much. It helps if you watch movies that aren’t too mentally challenging, hence Bull Durham. Though I put the French subtitles on to see if I couldn’t osmose a second language – I think I’ll get very good at swearing if nothing else (in case I ever run out of English words).

Right, so Bull Durham isn’t just a movie about sex and baseball, and a bit of Walt Whitman thrown in, it is very profound insight into the emotional lives of men Continue reading »

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Sohbet – We Are All Seekers

~  ~  ~

We are all seekers
This motley band
Our trail is full of rocks and roots
Unexpected turns
And long stretches through darkness

I cannot say these journeys lead
To happy endings
But something draws us
From the crowded passage
Of well paved pathways

~  ~  ~

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Sohbet – break-up songs

Part of a Valentine’s double header (I’ll post an article tomorrow), as comfort and entertainment for all you single folk on this most baneful of days, starting a poetic thread of favourite break-up songs. Continue reading »

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Escape Velocity

G-forceI had this t-shirt in high school, on it was a graphic of a guy’s face stretched and distorted in G-force. I can’t get that visual out of my head as I try and get this website (and a whole writing career) up and running. I keep bashing up against my own ignorance, and the pull of inertia, the status quo of my current life, seems just about insurmountable. I feel torn apart in my efforts to reach escape velocity. Continue reading »

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