Saturday/Sunday December 6/7

So, how has class been going? We have had an excellent 2 days and we still have 2 days to go. The gals have been working like mad creating some very complex pieces. The techniques that they are learning are taking their skills to an entirely new level and each one is doing an exceptional job. We are having a great time.

In the past 6 weeks or so I have become reacquainted with several people from my way back days. One of these has started a new Blog on this fine day and I found the first entry an incredibly heartfelt expression of what it actually is to feel. What is it to feel love and compassion so much that we become overwhelmed with these emotions? What is it about the human condition that can have us feel that much and how are we able to live with that intensity of emotion? (I will post a link to the blog, if I get the okay.)

“State Fair” written by Garrison Keillor, which appears in Leaving Home.
The last line of that essay:
“Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.”

Is now the right time to start that whole getting the years priorities all worked out? We are coming to the end of a year that for me have been of the most challenging that I have ever experienced. There are parts of me that are so raw and so much is so close to surface that I understand how it can be that the slightest thing can make everything come rising up to the surface & overwhelm in a moment.

And it is true; all it takes is just a moment and all can come rushing forth and there is nothing separating us from those feelings but the thinnest veil. So many of my friends have gone through so much this year. There have been many shifts, transitions, losses, gains and even much that has occurred that can never be forgiven. But even through all of that line that I read this evening that gives a new perspective.

“Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.”
It reminded me of the following chapter:











Tao Te Ching
Chapter 64

What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.

Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.
The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what is almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.