04

There are situations aplenty
that we cannot make better,
but there are no situations
we cannot make worse
by the way we respond to them.

We hold the power to make every situation
as it arises
as good as it can be
by the way we respond to it.

No super-hero ever had more power than that.

You might think
that we would put more thought
and effort 
into the way we respond
to what is happening
and what needs to be done about it
than we do.

I wonder why we don't.
Don't you?

–0–

03

Today is my 77th March 15.
Last night, I lay awake
pondering my vulnerabilities
frailties and fragilities. 
There appear to be three:
My eyesight.
My hearing.
My memory.

I am at the mercy of
"time and chance"
in all of these areas.

That means my proper role
is to not dwell upon it,
but to trust myself 
to deal appropriately
with whatever happens
when it happens
and live as well as I can
under the circumstances.

Which is always our role
at every stage of life.

We don't control what happens,
but we are in charge
of how we respond to what happens.

Every day,
we get out of bed
and see what we can do 
with the day.

That never changes.

How well we live
with what we have 
to live with
is always up to us.

–0–

02

We live to know where the lines lie.
And to know where to draw the lines.
And to draw them.
And to honor those that are drawn.

Respecting lines is the mark of maturity,
wisdom,
grace
and peace.

Too many people think
there are no lines
but the ones they draw.

Too many other people think
the only lines
are the ones someone else draws.

That leaves only a few of us
to revere and hold in high regard
the lines that are ours to draw
and the lines that are ours to observe.

There is an Old Testament commandment
that did not make it into the top ten,
but should be #1:
"Thou shalt not remove
thy neighbor's landmark!"
(And this implies that our neighbor
should not mess with our landmark!)

We all have to live 
within appropriate boundaries.
That is the first rule of life.

We have to know where we stop
and someone else starts--
and stay within the lines!

Which leaves us with Frasier Snowden's
priceless declaration:
"The only true philosophical question is,
'Where do you draw the line?'"

–0–

01

I think it is Martin Palmer 
who suggested an alternative translation 
for the Tao te Ching’s 
“The Tao that can be said/told is not the eternal Tao” 
would be, 
“The path that is a discernible path 
is not a reliable path.”

I think that’s great. 
Because: Where does that leave us? 

A path that is not discernible is invisible 
and if it is discernible, 
it is not reliable. 
There may as well be no path! 
I love that.

And I work around it this way: 
We don’t find the path. 
We wait for the path to find us! 
The path is not our responsibility. 
We are the path’s responsibility. 
Our responsibility is to be findable. 
We become findable by being still and quiet 
and watching what arises, 
unfolds, 
emerges,
beckons. 

I like that because 
I am particularly/peculiarly 
cut out for that. 
Sitting still, 
being quiet, 
watching,
listening,
waiting
is quite my shtick.

I think we may interpret,
understand,
explain
everything
in light of what our shtick is.

Need I say
that we are stuck 
with our shtick?

That is as "us"
as anything is!

Stick with your shtick!

Should be a bumper shticker.

PS. Do you know
what your shtick is?
If you don't,
ask someone who knows you.

03

We know when things are 
balanced and harmonious,
and we know when things are 
unsettled, chaotic
and out of control.

We know when we are fighting
with our life,
struggling to get things into place,
and when we are at peace
with our life,
lolling in "the land of gentle breezes
where the peaceful waters flow"
(Anne Murry, Snowbird).

What we don't know
is when to change ourselves
and when to change our life.

Changing ourselves is
"Adjustment, acceptance, acquiescence
and accommodation, Kid.
Adjustment, acceptance, acquiescence
and accommodation."

Changing our life is
seeing what can happen,
knowing what the situation 
is calling for,
and offering what we have to give
in the service of what needs to be done,
allowing the outcome be the outcome.

Willing what cannot be willed,
and forcing what cannot be forced--
and not knowing the difference
between what can be 
and what cannot be--
is the recipe
for turmoil, chaos, struggle,
upheaval, unrest, anxiety, 
discontent, dissatisfaction
and what generally passes
as the American/Western Way of Life.

Whenever we experience the symptoms
of "the American/Western Way of Life,"
we need to take it as  a cue
to sit still,
be quiet, 
attend our breathing,
seek the center,
the source,
the core
of our original nature,
and open ourselves to the impulses
arising from the depths of who we are.

The inner experience
of seeking clarity--
which is the sole function of prayer
rightly practiced--
will orient us according 
to the Way of the Tao,
which is entering the service
of what is being called for here and now,
and doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right way,
and the right place,
moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation,
and allowing the outcome 
to be the outcome,
trusting ourselves 
to respond to that outcome
in ways appropriate to the occasion
for the rest of our life.

This is "turning the light around,"
by being what we seek,
and serving the moment
with what we have to give,
which is the most life transforming
and earth-shaking
thing we can ever do:
just being present in the moment
for the sake of the moment.

–0–

02

If we go into any situation
looking for what we stand to gain
from the situation,
our we might profit from the situation,
what's in it for us in the situation, etc.,
that will lead to outcomes
that are quite different
than if we go into the situation
looking for what is called for in the situation,
and how we might serve the situation
for the good of the situation,
asking ourselves what we have to give
that the situation needs,
asking how we can be helpful--
regardless of the cost to us personally.

How we approach each situation as it arises
tells the tale.

To get or to give?

Nothing matters more than that.

–0–

01

We think in terms 
of outcomes,
results,
payoffs,
profit,
rewards,
merit,
acquisition,
accumulation,
buying,
spending,
amassing,
consuming...

We think in terms
of what is in it for us,
and regularly run
cost/benefit analyses
in order to figure the odds
and do what's smart.

Look around.

Being smart has us 
where we are today.

Jesus said about being smart,
"They have their reward."

And he said,
"Be like the lilies of the field.
They neither sow nor reap,
nor worry about 
how they are going eat, 
or what they are going to put on."

And for his trouble,
they crucified him on a cross.

Jesus wasn't smart.

Look what happened to him.

Jesus also knew what he was doing.
He knew that speaking the truth
and being true to himself
within the conditions and circumstances
of his life--
where it wasn't smart 
to have anything to do with truth--
would lead to his death.

What will we die for?
What will we go to hell for?
What are we afraid of?
What will we do anything to avoid?

Is it more important to be smart,
or to live truthfully?

Living truthfully changes everything.
There is very little profit,
in the way the world measures profit,
in living truthfully.

Living truthfully
is the first thing to go
in doing what it takes
to make it
in a profit-driven economy
(And what other kinds of economy are there?)

Profit at what price?
Profit at the price of living truthfully
is a Faustian bargain.

Faustian bargains run the economies of the world.

And look around.
Being smart has us 
where we are today.

The alternative is
knowing what we are doing,
knowing what is important,
knowing what matters most,
and living in light of that,
in service to that,
in a "Thy will, not mine be done,"
kind of way--
though there be a cross
at the end of the line.

That is the message of the cross.

That is the Tao of Jesus.
That is doing what needs to be done,
saying what needs to be said,
when it needs to be done/said,
the way it needs to be done/said,
for as often as it needs to be done/said,
and letting the outcome be the outcome.

Quite different from
the bargain of Faust.

And, you will never hear that sermon
in the Christian churches of the land.
Any land.

And here we are.

03

Treat wherever you are
as though it is exactly where you want to be,
and do everything that is called for there
precisely as it needs to be done
for as long as you are there.

This is one way of "turning the light around."

Turning the light around
means finding on the inside
what we look for on the outside,
and offering from the inside
what we expect to come to us
from the outside.

Turning the light around
is turning the tables on our 
wishes, desires and expectations.
Giving instead of receiving.
Being rather than wanting/desiring.

It is creating a ministry of compassion
and service to every moment
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

Wouldn't that change our life, though?
Wouldn't that transform the world, though?
All for the low, low price
of waking up
and turning the light around.

And we don't have to wait for anything to start.
We can begin wherever we are.
Whenever we are.
Starting now.
Boom! Back in the Garden of Eden.
Just like that.

–0–

02

Think of what has always been called "God's will,"
as being in accord with the Tao,
and reflect on the time and place
in the history of western civilization
when and where "God's will"
shifted over into "keeping the ten commandments"
and making God happy
so that God would bless us and keep us
and make us happy.

That is the precise point in history
when and where it all went to hell--
and where hell came into being.

Heaven for those who keep God happy,
and hell for those who don't.

Ethics has nothing to do with 
being in accord with the Tao.

"God's will" has become "living ethically."
Not drinking, not smoking, not playing around,
and not reading the comics on Sunday morning.

We have lost our bearings,
strayed from the path,
departed from The Way
and have nothing to do
with "the Holy One of Israel,"
which remains the Tao in the Far East
to this day.

Jesus harks back to this idea of God's will
being at one with the Tao
in the Sermon of the Mount,
the parables--particularly,
the Parable of the Prodigal
and the Parable of the Good Samaritan--
and the bit about 
"Inasmuch as you have done it, 
or not done it,
to the least of the people on earth,
you have done it,
or not done it,
unto me."

But under such an arrangement,
the priests and the religious 
establishment
lose position, power and control,
and that, as you might expect,
will never do,
so Jesus was crucified
for being a threat to the system,
and the religious establishment
built around Jesus
has deftly removed the Tao of Jesus
from consideration,
and placed sin/hell/redemption/atonement/
heaven-everlasting
at the center of being saved,
and everybody has to be saved, 
or else.

"And the beat goes on"
(Sonny Bono).

And that leaves us with recovering
the Tao-ness of God's will,
and understanding prayer
as seeking clarity--
of "waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear,"
in order to know what needs to be done
here and now,
and doing the right thing, 
at the right time,
in the right way,
moment-by-moment
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

Doing what the situation calls for
is completely different from imposing
some kind of ethical response
on all situations regardless
of what response is being called for,
in a "the spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will"
kind of way.

"Blowing where it will" is no way
to systematically impose a religious order
on life, but.
It is the way to live in accord 
with the Tao.
Whether the Church likes it or not.

–0–

01

Think of the letters GOP
as standing for Gone Off Plumb.

When some individual,
or some group of individuals,
or an entire voting block of individuals
Go Off Plumb,
it creates widening Circles of Confusion
throughout the culture and the world.

Instability and uncertainty rule,
up and down are questionable.
Maybe drinking Clorox is a good idea.
Maybe there are two--
or more--
sides to truth.
Maybe reality can be anything
we want it to be.
And if enough of us think
something is so,
it may as well be so,
because everyone is acting 
as though it is.

Except for the FACT 
that PLUMB and OFF PLUMB
are not the same thing!
You can check it with a plumb bob
or a bubble level.

The wall is straight vertically
or it is not.
The photograph is in focus
or it is not.
Food can be too salty to eat.
Wheels can be out of round.
Book cases can be out of square.

Do an internet search
for "Focus, clarity, confusion,"
and for "Circles of confusion."
Read everything that comes up.
Ask all of the questions 
that beg to be asked
about what you are reading.
Explore the entire area
of clarity and confusion
until you become an expert
on the matter
and can talk with anyone about it
without losing your focus
on what's what and what is not.

And sit quietly,
meditatively--
another word for this is "prayerfully,"
though understanding "prayer"
as "seeking clarity"
will transform your prayer life
for the better
and change the way 
you think about religion,
but that is another topic 
of conversation--
and see what connections you can make
between the political climate 
of this country
over the past four years
and counting,
and the difference 
between clarity and confusion.

Add to the mixture the impact
a "strange attractor" has
on "chaos" and "confusion,"
and think of money/wealth/power
as the kind of attractor
that can unbalance a stable system
and create uncertainty and instability
where truth and reliability should be.

And it all begins to make sense.

Gone Off Plumb in the service
off Money/Wealth/Power.

That's the GOP for you
in today's world.

We can save the world
by voting in every election,
local, state, and national,
and never voting for another
GOP candidate ever.

That is the only way
to bring things back
into focus, clarity, square and plumb.

04

I feel sorry for whomever it is
keeping me company--
keeping us company--
as an inner presence,
as our best invisible friend,
on our way through our life.

That is the presence 
that keeps giving us tips,
hints, nudges...
that works to wake us up
and turn us toward the light,
and we keep doing
the Adam and Eve thing,
listening to the wrong input,
ignoring the right ways
of doing what needs to be done.

I apologize all of the time.

I don't know how it works,
if they draw lots,
flip coins,
pick a number...
or how our Riders feel about
being along for the ride with us,
but if we all come back 
as Riders--
as mute/nonverbal Riders--
with someone else doing the driving
and making the choices
while we scream soundlessly
and point uselessly
in the opposite direction,
I hope we remember how we treated
our Rider
and note how it's all coming back to roost,
shaking our head
and wondering where it goes from here.

–0–

03

We are birthing one another here,
growing each other up,
waking each other up,
helping each other find our life
and live it.
To know what needs to be done
and do it.

That's all there is to it.

What are we missing?
What are we not seeing?
What are we ignoring?
In the rush to find our way
and have it?

The trick is to forget
finding our way
and having it.

Our work is to see what 
needs to be done
and do it.

In each situation as it arises,
all our life long.
"Nothing to it but to do it"
(Maya Angelou).

Listen to the woman!
Do what she says!

–0–

02

We are here to bring ourselves forth,
to bring ourselves to life,
to birth ourselves into the life we are living,
and to assist others 
in their own birth process.

We are here to give birth to ourselves,
one another
and the entire world.

The way to not do that is 
to concretize the metaphor.

We are always factualizing our symbols.

The Right To Life 
as an anti-abortion movement
kills life in the name of saving it.

It values the actual, literal, 
life of a fetus
over the symbolic, metaphorical,
and even actual, literal,
life of the mother.

Some anti-abortion Catholic priests
rail against using fetal tissue
in medical research that gives life
to thousands of people.
They kill in order to save.

The symbolic/metaphorical aspect
of giving birth,
of bringing to life,
makes mothers of us all.

We all are,
each of us is,
eternally involved in birthing ourselves
and one another--
in terms of waking up
and entering fully into the wonder/joy
of being alive to the fullness,
depth, height, breadth of life
on all levels,
in all dimensions.

And we do that by dying,
metaphorically/symbolically,
again and again
in growing up against our will,
in waking up against our will,
in being living examples
of the spiritual truth
that going with the flow
means swimming against the current
and going against the grain.

The paradoxes,
ironies,
contradictions,
opposites,
dichotomies,
contraries,
polarities...
of life 
have to be recognized,
embraced,
lived,
suffered,
borne,
danced with
and affirmed
with every breath
and heartbeat.

Life eats life.
In order for us to live,
something must die.
And we have to sway "Yea!"
to life as it is--
to the way of things as they are!

Which is, itself, a kind of dying
in order to live.
In order to be who we are,
doing what is ours to do.

We sacrifice ourselves on the altar
of our own becoming
every day.

Growing up is waking up
is dying, dying, dying
again and again
all our life long.

Those who don't do that
die a different kind of death,
and are even more dead
in a "Leave the dead
to bury the dead," kind of way,
than those who do it,
bearing the pain/anguish/agony
of being alive
and paying the full price
of being alive
all along the way.

Metaphors and symbols 
have to be living,
vibrant,
throbbing,
vital referents to truth
that cannot be said,
explained,
told,
defined.

We live to die,
we die to live.

"Death and resurrection, Kid.
Death and resurrection!"

It is our place to understand 
what this means,
and live it out,
consciously,
intentionally,
deliberately,
each day,
all our life long.

–0–

01

We are here to live well
and pass it on.

Living well comes down 
to doing what is ours to do
and what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
with the gifts that are ours to share
all our life long.

We live to find our life and live it,
and pass that on 
to everybody who comes our way,
helping them to find their life and live it.

Part of finding our life and living it
is knowing/noticing what symbols/metaphors
attract us,
attach themselves to us,
call our name,
keep popping up,
won't leave us alone...

These are our helpers,
our aids,
our guides.

Our place is to be right about
what our symbols/metaphors--
which choose us more than we choose them--
are referring to.

What do they have reference to?
What do they stand for?
What do they mean?
What do they mean for us?

One of my symbols is a keyboard,
another is a camera.
Both are about seeing and saying.
I'm here to see and to say what I see.
So, I am to do that consciously,
intentionally,
deliberately,
with awareness and grace,
compassion and kindness.

Gerard Manley Hopkins said,
"What I do is me/for that I came."

He said that to all of us,
for all of us.

Our place is to know/find 
what is ours to do
and do it.

That is why we came,
what we are here for.

That is living well.

Passing it along
is helping/assisting other people
in knowing/doing that themselves.

Another of my symbols is
a stream on the way to the sea.

Streams are everybody's symbol.
We are a stream
on its way to the sea.

"The stream doesn't force its way,
the stream finds its way,"
is an old Taoist aphorism
about living in, 
and abiding by,
in accord with 
the Tao, the Way
in our own way,
as only we can do it.

What is The Way?
What is our way?
We live to find out--
to know and to do--
these things.

For that we came.

03

The people who say,
"Nothing matters!"
say it in a way 
that suggests
it matters that nothing matters.

What matters, matters!

Sit down with yourself
and ferret out what matters to you.
Then stand up,
step back into your life,
and live there as though
what matters to you matters!!!

Put passion into your life!
Care!!! about what you are doing!
Do the things your care about!
Do the things that matter to you!
Take your time with the things
that are important to you.
Do them right, properly, correctly
every time you do them!

Cherish them!
Honor them!
Revere them!
Worship them!
Do them as though 
they are important to you!
Every time you do them!

Put yourself into what you are doing!
Why hold anything back?
What are you saving up for?
Care about what you care about--
every day for the rest of your life!

–0–

02

What is the difference between
being centered/grounded/rooted/
focused
and being stuck?

We are held in place
where we are
by our idea of how things are
and how they ought to be.

How accurate is our idea
is the question.
What difference does it make
is the other question.

By what standard
do we gauge the accuracy
of our idea 
and measure the difference
it makes
is another question.

How do we know 
how well we are evaluating
our situation?
How do we know 
that what we are doing
in response to it
is the right thing to do?

Who says so?

How do we know 
they know
what they are talking about?

We are stuck with our ideas
about all of these things.

We are stuck in how we view
what we look at,
no matter how we view it.

And no matter how we change
our mind,
we are only exchanging being stuck
in one place
for being stuck in another.

Being grounded/centered/rooted
focused
must include compassion 
for all ways of seeing/evaluating/
thinking about what we call reality,
and the ability to do what matters
without taking any of it seriously.

Being stuck in this way
is being like the spirit
that blows where it will--
tail dancing with the dolphins,
laughing all the way.

–0–

01

The point,
the whole point,
and nothing but the point,
is to do what needs to be done
right here, right now
because it needs to be done
and because you need to do it
and because if you don't do it,
it won't be done,
and for yet again,
what needed to happen
did not happen.

The only thing that makes sense
is assisting what needs help
coming into existence,
coming into being.

With me, here and now,
this means typing words
maybe no one ever reads.
That doesn't matter.
My place is to type the words.
Right here. 
Right now.

Gerard Manley Hopkins said,
as those who do read what I write
have heard two hundred times,
"What I do is me--
for that I came."
Doing what we came to do
is the only thing that matters.
Why would we not do it?

Finding what we came to do,
and doing it,
moment after moment,
all our life long
is the most beautiful thing 
in the world.

Speaking of the world,
look it over
and tell me how many people
you see doing what they came to do--
doing what is theirs to do--
doing what the moment needs to have done,
right here, right now.

That is how many people who are not missing
the point of their life.
Why would anyone want to do that?
Why would anyone put all the effort
that is required into living their life
and not do what they came to do with it?

What needs doing?
What needs you to do it?
What do you need to do?
Right here, right now?
Why not do it?

02

I've been wondering lately
about what's working.
Government is not working anywhere.
Democracy is not working in the US
or the UK.
The GOP is the most dysfunctional political party
I have ever lived with.
I could go on.
And on.
About what is not working.

Gravity is working.
Music is working.
Poetry is working.
AUMMMMmmmmmm... is working.
Ice cream is working.
COVID vaccines are working.
...

A lot of things are working just fine.

How about you?
Are you working?
I'm working above 85% most days.
I'd like to do it all over,
with me as my father.
That would have been exactly
what I needed at the start.
It took me way too long
to begin fathering myself.

We all would have been better off
with better parents.
And our parents would have been better off
with better parents.
And so on,
all the way back to Lucy,
and whomever played the role of Dezzy.

But, here we are.
Now what?

This is our boat
and it is up to us to paddle it.
Just as it is.
There is no taking it back
to the Boat dealer for a refund,
or a trade.

So, what's working about your life?
What is not working?
What can you do to work around 
what is not working?
To work with what is not working?

If you separate what is not working
from what is working,
what do you have to work with?
What is the part that is working
asking of you?
What does it need to work better?
What is it calling for?

How about focusing more of you time
and attention on what is working,
and less on what is not working?

Just paying attention to what is working,
and to what is not working,
would be a good place to start. 
Just observe what is working
and what is not working.
Just be aware of what is working,
and what is not working.

See where awareness alone takes you.

And add awareness to your list 
of things that are working.

I just added it to mine!

–0–

01

There is what we do to pay the bills,
and there is what we pay the bills to do.

These two things are primary,
essential--
the fundamental,
base requirements for being alive.

We have to be clear about those two things,
what we are doing and why we are doing it.

And, we have to bear the pain
of the compromises required to do
those two things.
And all the other things we do
in conjunction with those two things.

Most of the other things we do
have no bearing on the two primary things.
And they take all our energy and attention
away from the two primary things.

Our focus and attention has very little to do
with the two primary things,
and everything to do with
escape, distraction, diversion and denial
regarding our life,
and what we are doing,
and why we are doing it,
and what we are to be about,
and how differently we should be living
in order to be about it.

Our life is where we hide from life.

List the things you hate about your life
and the things you love about your life.
And tell me where you spend your time,
doing things on each list.

You spend your time doing the things
you hate about your life.

You talk about what you love,
you do what you hate.
And you wonder why you aren't happy.

You aren't happy because you aren't alive.
You are mostly dead.
Because of the way you spend your time.

Being alive requires you to transform
your relationship with yourself
and with your life.
And bear the pain of the contradictions
involved with what you do to pay the bills
and what you pay the bills to do.

Being alive requires us to bear the pain
of being alive.

Jesus said, "Pick up your cross every day
and come with me."

Our cross is the pain of being alive--
the pain of the contradictions involved
with being alive.

We live to incarnate the contradictions,
to integrate the contradictions,
to be the contradictions,
between what we do to pay the bills
and what we pay the bills to do.

We bring Yang and Yin to life in our life.
We are Yang and Yin.

The Tao gives rise to the Source.
The Source gives rise to Yin and Yang.
Yin and Yang give rise to
heaven and earth and human beings.
And from those three
everything else flows.

Our work is to live in such a way
as to smooth the flow
by consciously bearing the pain
of the contradictions at work
in our life.

Where is your pain?
Your agony?
Your anguish?
Your contradictions?
Walk into it.
Embrace it.
Dance with it.
Work with it.
Laugh with it.
Love it.

Reconcile what can be reconciled.
Maintain the tension between
irreconcilable polarities.
Do what needs to be done
in light of all opposites,
conflicts,
dichotomies,
divisions
and differences.

Integrity is holding all of it together
in the light of awareness
and doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises
upon the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea.

03

Anything properly considered
becomes a portkey to realization
and transformation.

A horoscope, a fortune cookie
(The fortune or the cookie), 
a horseshoe nail...

The key is a meditative perspective
and a problem or a pressing question,
and the probing inquiry:
"How does this connect with that?"

Sit with the question
as a novice might wrestle
with a koan.

"What does that have to do with this?"

Carry it with you through the day,
perhaps for several days,
looking for the connection,
the contact point, 
the "Aha!" of recognition.

The magic is there
waiting for you to do the work
of preparing the way
for the magic to happen.

How significant is the problem?
How pressing is the question?
The motivation for seeking the magic
has to carry you past 
boredom and frustration
into the work of seeking 
the philosopher's stone.

–0–

02

Between being unbalanced
and out of harmony,
and being centered and focused,
in the flow
and at one with ourselves
and our circumstances,
are we conscious
of the transition point
where one goes over into the other?

Do we know when we are moving from one
to the other?

Are we mindful enough of our state of being
to know when we are facing a choice
that has the potential
of destabilizing us
or re-stabilizing us?

If we are destabilized,
do we know what it will take
to re-stabilize us?

Everything depends upon,
flows out of,
revolves around
our balance and harmony--
our connection with our center,
core, foundation, source,
original nature.

To be in accord with this
is to be in accord with the Tao
and at one with the flow of life
through time and place.

Knowing and avoiding 
what disrupts that flow,
and finding our way back to it
when it is disturbed,
are the guiding principles
of the species,
and we would do well
to nurture and maintain
our connection with them
throughout our days.

–0–

01

Growing up is waking up.
Waking up is growing up.
Both involve
transforming our relationship
with ourselves and our life.

"Nothing changes until we do"
could be a bit of Mary Poppins wisdom
on the order of,
"Anything can happen if you let it."

Even Chinese fortune cookies
can wake us up "if we let it."

We stand between ourselves
and what might yet be.

Whose side are we on?

What is not working in our life?

What do we need that we don't have?

Waking up is growing up,
is seeing what needs to be done
and doing it.

What is keeping that from happening?
What has to change for everything to change?

Think of the Tao as
"The way things need to be."

Living in accord with the Tao
is living to assist things
in being what they need to be
in each situation as it arises--
no matter what it might mean 
for us personally.

This is the fundamental message
of Jesus of Nazareth.
"Do not think about yourselves
and what is in it for you!
Pick up your cross daily,
and come along with me!"

Jesus was one with the Tao.
He was what the situation 
needed him to be
in every situation that came along.
The answer to the question,
"What would Jesus do?"
is "What needs to be done
in every situation that arises
all your life long."

What is keeping that from happening?