Frances and I are cooking and cleaning for tonight's birthday dinner though we're unsure whether guests will venture through the snow to attend the celebration. If not, we've decided that we'll share the food with elders who live nearby.
I watched the snow quietly spill over the white landscape during my mid-morning T'ai Chi Chih practice. All was still except for those busy birds and three huge squirrels who chased each other up and down, over and around as they leapt from branch to branch, tree to tree.
During my TCC practices I concentrate on softening my muscles and relaxing my mind while I move. Once I release tension in one area of my body, though, I'm aware of tightness in another area. I guess I can say with confidence that this is an ongoing process with no clear end in sight. Today's reading in 365 Tao spoke about this need to be vigilant (p. 345, "Worthwhile"):
... sometimes it takes a long time to hear about Tao. There are some days when Tao does not manifest itself right away. It seems that the more you want to love, the more hatred tempts you. The more you want to be pure, the more negativity pursues you. The more you want serenity, the more chaos assaults you. The ordinary have common problems. Those who pursue Tao struggle against titanic forces. What can you do but accept it and persevere? If you fret about it, then you have not only spent the day away from Tao, but you have ruined that day with emotional turmoil too.It's a blessing to feel the weight of snow around me. The moving hands on the clock lose their power to dictate a schedule, impassable driveways and streets force cars into irrelevancy, and snow's thick insulation silences the noisy speed of the outside world. What a wonderful invitation to release duty and responsibility and simply be.
No comments:
Post a Comment