October 24, 2023 – B

Posted byjimwdollarPosted in06/25/2020
Horseshoe Bend 05/18/2010 — Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Page, Arizona
Comes a war, 
comes a hurricane,
comes an earthquake,
comes a baby...
goes the Tao
amid the dust and travail.

The Tao comes and goes.
That is the Way of Tao, 
of the Way.

We find our way back to the Way
through the right kind of emptiness,
stillness,
silence,
and waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

When the sister-in-law comes 
for a two-week visit,
it throws everything up in the air,
and it takes me a month
to get my grove back.

I am "ticky" in a lot of ways.
My balance and harmony are finely tuned.
When I lose The Silence,
I'm lost for a while.
And I have to wait,
knowing it will take time
for things to come back into focus
and for stability to reappear.

Restoring the Tao
is always a matter of time
spent in the right kind of way
for the right amount of time.

–0–

Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.

3 thoughts on “October 24, 2023 – B”

  1. Sometimes the doldrums live between even good disruptions and reorientations to stability. The Hurricane that was my sister blew into town over the weekend to help sort through 4 boxes of 76 years of family photos and memorabilia — whew! — time to catch my breath and find my center again! Your column today hit the sweet spot for me.

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  2. Everyone has some version of “sister-in-law” in their life…as long as we know how to find our way back, we are never really that far from the way 🙂 Love this photo, its breathtaking!

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  3. Our “sister-in-laws” keep us grounded in the truth of our own limitations/restrictions and our need for continued/unending/limitless realization/growth/growing up some more again today, always and forever. And thank you for your presence, insight and wisdom (Which we both know doesn’t reside in or come from us, but is a gift to us from the Mystery beyond us, beyond all of us)!

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