We Are A River

"The Sage's Tao Te Ching" by William Martin

(Ancient Advice for the Second Half of Life)

Tao Chapter 25

We Are A River

From: "The Sage's Tao te Ching" translated by William Martin

Our life has not been an ascent
up one side of a mountain and down the other.
We did not reach a peak,
only to decline and die.
We have been as drops of water,
born in the ocean and sprinkled on the earth
in a gentle rain.
We became a spring,
and then a stream,
and finally a river flowing deeper and stronger,
nourishing all it touches
as it nears its home once again.

Don't accept the modern myths of aging.
You are not declining.
You are not fading away into uselessness.
You are a sage,
a river at its deepest
and most nourishing.
Sit by a river bank some time
and watch attentively as the river
tells you of your life.

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I got into reading "The Tao" after reading James Frey's book, "A Million Little Pieces"....I think.  I read so much, the books get jumbled in my brain, but I think it was this book.  Forget all the hubub about Frey's book, it was a fabulous read, fiction or not. 

 

I have Mr. Martin's entire collection of Tao books and they're all fascinating. He does take a LOT of creative license, but I love & admire his wild imagination. I have over two dozen interpretations of "The Tao".  It's a book overflowing with wisdom. 

 

My all-time favorite chapter is Chapter 11.  You can Google it and find pages and pages of different interpretations.  I really LOVE this one by Ursula Le Guin:

 

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 11
translated by Ursula K. Le Guin (1998)

 

Thirty spokes
meet in the hub.
Where the wheel isn't
is where it's useful.

Hollowed out,
clay makes a pot.
Where the pot's not
is where it's useful.

Cut doors and windows
to make a room.
Where the room isn't,
there's room for you.

So the profit in what is
is in the use of what isn't.

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I'm off to whittle down my pile of library books.  It's cold and rainy here in the swamp (no snow), a perfect day to hibernate with books, cats, NPR and my cozy quilt.  (Ray's got his nose in a pile of books I read years ago by the illustrious, chilling author, Mo Hayder.  He's on "Birdman", the first book.   She makes "The Silence of the Lambs" look like a fairy tale.....Her books scared me so much, I slept with the lights on for weeks.  Just the kind of reads I love.) 

 

xo,

Marion

 

 

"Welcome, winter. Your late dawns and chilled breath make me lazy, but I love you nonetheless." ~Terri Guillemets

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"One kind word can warm three winter months." ~Japanese Proverb

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