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A Solitude That Leaves You Less Lonely

The worst is over now, I think. It’s been a rough summer (for many of you out there too!). A rainstorm washed out my living room, left me uprooted and homeless for a couple months while it got cleaned up and put back together again. It’s funny, before this disaster I was getting restless, felt the need for a shift, contemplated moving. This house and this life is the longest I’d been in one place since childhood.

Well careful what you wish for, moved I was. And though I’m back in my home, it feels different, I’m different. Like a house plant, root bound and quasi-dormant, I think I needed shaking up at bit so roots could grow in a new direction. God I hate being uprooted, Read More »A Solitude That Leaves You Less Lonely

ToV 20 – On Sass-Monkeys and Seagulls

Taoists are sass-monkeys. There’s a misconception that spiritual people are always wise, aloof, subdued. There is something to be said for the wisdom of being able to see the humour in things; and being able to talk smack to those still talking themselves too seriously. This whole chapter is a comparison of “regular folk” and what it means to be immersed in the Tao.

Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other people are sharp:
I alone am dull.
Other people have purpose;
I alone don’t know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.

Now, if you put that on a resume, you wouldn’t get a lot of call backs, and that’s kinda the point. Lao Tzu is making fun of what people value, what they think is important, in part perhaps to illustrate that a pursuit of the Tao is not an ego-driven thing, most people will not admire you for it. I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

But he’s trying to help you. The chapter opens with: Stop thinking, and end your problems (pausing while all my nerd readers get their gruntles on for that one!). Read More »ToV 20 – On Sass-Monkeys and Seagulls

ToV 17 – What Liars Lose

Chapter 17 actually says some great things about leadership and humility and empowerment, you should definitely read it. However, a strange thing can happen when you read insightful texts, sometimes something oblique speaks to you. A single line did that to me today, so join me on a tangent!

If you don’t trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.

I’m sure in the context of leadership and governance this speaks to empowering the populace (and how to avoid revolutions for that matter). But what tickles my brain is the idea YOUR lack of trust can make other people untrustworthy.

No one exists in isolation, who we are is inherently reflected in how we relate to the people around us, and what I find heartbreaking about lying isn’t the falsehood, it’s the failure of trust. Read More »ToV 17 – What Liars Lose

ToV 16 – January Blues? Find your Centre!

Though I have my own tradition of post-Christmas meltdowns, I think it’s a rather universal thing. There’s even a name for it: Blue Monday – that day in January when all the excitement of the holidays has worn of, the bills have started to come in, and months of Winter darkness have taken their toll. But I think there’s something else too.

The madness of December, an annual anomaly: your regular life left in stasis for a while. The trouble comes in January when you pick up your life again after been separated from it for a while. It gives you some perspective, and that perspective is sometimes disconcerting. When you’ve stepped away from the busy daily grind and can actually look at your life, there’s often a moment of: What the hell? This isn’t what I wanted for myself, this isn’t what I wanted to be doing.Read More »ToV 16 – January Blues? Find your Centre!