56
for the knock of a tempest
Leaves you cold and breathless
Leave the door open to the brusque and breezy
Your chamber you share with dust and debris
Greet visitors with hollering barbs
Remain alone
Never open the door
Never be known
With your ears be the chamber
Without judgement and expansive
Welcoming
Offer your words as a good host
Keep them neat and well-ordered
Kind and of best quality
Be as the Tao
The weather is changeable this time of year. Spring, Summer, Winter, pre-Halloween Autumn can masquerade as any of those.
Every day becomes shorter than the next, and yet to the To-Do tome grows heavier. Fatigue calls more often and sleep little longer. Life becomes more dear as it gets ready to go to soil and hibernate. The temptation to shift solely between rest and work is strong. Maybe fit in a little Netflix but not much else. Certainly no outside fun.
The sunny days will become more sparse as October wanes and November approaches. Soon it won't be bright and colorful leaves falling from a blue sky, muted with fluffy clouds. It will be rain and grey, for days, or even months on end; so who can blame you.
No one. Or everyone. Your mood, likely. Hello, SAD.
The key to getting through and happily ... is finding the right moments to act, to work, and to rest. To find the balance and the joy during the darkest times.
The master does nothing is a common refrain among Taoists. The stereotype ... a grey-robed monk sitting for hours in meditative repose. Not a bad Way to go but not the Way of life.
For those that inhabit the matrix and not solely the mind-space, the key to a happy life is a balance between activity and inactivity, choosing when and how to act based on the signs of the seasons and the signs from those who inhabit the matrix give us.
Like the seasons, people change too. How they feel about the same subject shifts with mood and physical condition. Pick the sunny moments to act and invoke change and use the grey moments to rest and listen.
And yet a strong connection to the mind-space strengthens the Taoist ability to reading the moments to act and reserve and strength to hold back when it is not. When it is time to listen. Helps one find and maintain the balance.
Listening and reading only looks like nothing.
***
Words and Images are my own.
56 is published in 81, Poems from the Tao. 81 is available in paperback or digital through amazon and your local libraries and bookstores. Click on any title below to further explore and support my writing.
Loving the colours of the leaves against the blue sky! I hope you get some nice weather back soon!