Tuesday July 28th

I am still working away, still getting all things ready for Philly, for my mom’s birthday & for teaching in Chicago. All of these things are happening in just a matter of weeks and I am getting all of that ready as well as getting Bead & Button proposals in, I will be teaching for the Best Bead Show in Feb and I will now be teaching for the Bellevue Festival in November…So my plate is full, getting fuller and I need to keep it that way.

The beauty of the Tao is that these chapters have had different meanings for me at different moments in my life. This particular chapter evoked a very different response from me just over a year ago. Reading these chapters over and over again emphasises to me that life truly is an ebb and flow, life shifts and suddenly there are new realities that have quickly become embedded into you and into your daily life.

Tao Te Ching
Chapter 14

Look, and it can’t be seen.
Listen, and it can’t be heard.
Reach, and it can’t be grasped.

Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.

Approach it and there is no beginning
follow it and there is no end.
You can’t know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.

Along our journey, when that something or that someone is discovered that makes you smile from the inside out, that makes you laugh, giggle and be joyous, treasure it; make certain to care for it and make sure that it is protected. These somethings, these individuals, they are the treasures that we are on this earth to experience. Just always remember that it can be something as simple as a humming bird that makes you smile, as stunning as a sunset or moonrise that makes you pause to watch as it passes or it can be that smile that makes you melt from the inside out when it shines on you.

Just always remember to look at the world around you, take time to see all of the beauty and all of the promise that is here. Be open to the possible because you never know what may be just around the corner.