Thursday, January 08, 2009

Splitting Wood

It is a cold night, at least it feels cold in this room where I spend most of my evenings. According to my computer it is 25 degrees outside. That's cold enough for me. Recently, when I was feeling old, it occurred to me that one sign of my aging is that I seem more susceptible to cold. Some days I seem to literally feel it in my bones. The aches and pains seem to also increase the colder it gets. The older I get the more I love sweaters!

Today's Tao thought seems to be in perfect alignment with some of my recents thoughts.

The woodcutter works in all seasons. Splitting wood is both action and inaction.

The last sentence in the commentary says, "True labor is half initiative and half knowing how to let things proceed on their own". The commentator speaks of using the ax properly and hitting the wood correctly. If done properly, less effort is used and greater success is achieved.

As I have said before, the way of the world is to push things along rather than let them take their natural course. Many seek power and control over everything around them. Rather than seek power over my surroundings, I seek to be present to everything around me. I seek unity more than control. Admittedly, I have a sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle resistance to anyone and anything trying to control me. In that sense it is a challenge for me to let go. My resistance to forces outside myself and my subconscious attempts to make things go my way, mixed with some tendencies for passive/aggressive behavior, sometimes creates a psychological tug of war within myself. There is a time for action and there is a time for inaction. The secret is knowing the difference. A bigger question for me is what really motivates my actions? It is easy to understand my resistence to other's attempts to control me. It is more challenging to understand the motivation and desires of my own actions.

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