Life is a Living Book Waiting to Unfold Its Revealing Pages I

Shawn Tedrow

Living in my neighborhood in San Francisco, I witness so many simple moments that transform into incredibly rich stories. But it’s like there is a veil over these simple life situations that are incredible pointing metaphors of spiritual passageways, just waiting for us to uncover.

Life is a living book waiting to unfold its revealing pages, but it’s a learned art to turning each page.

To uncover this veil over what appears to be just another ordinary event, one must be paying attention, be engaged with a little faith, and at times be willing to walk against our grain that we live in.

I know that doesn’t sound like a not-knowing, no-belief, and a spontaneous-flow, Tao teaching, but please hang in there with me.

The word faith might trigger and upset the orthodox mind of some practicing Taoist, but I am not talking about a traditional faith in an outside entity or in a religious fairy tale.

I speak about a faith that arises within, where we are actively engaged with Life’s moments, watching and waiting to uncover more than what meets the eye.

As this practice of engaging in life’s moments grows and becomes second nature (first nature), it’s as if we begin to develop an artist eye, and give birth to seeing colors brighter and richer than ever before. Something else can be seen that couldn’t be seen before. We begin living in another dimension of insight.

Spiritual momentum begins to flourish, and we become very attentive, with a deep sense of expectation, similar to when we approach a flower and put our nose to it, in anticipation of experiencing its perfume. When a hummingbird goes to this same flower, it has similar expectations of possibly experiencing its nectar. We can nonchalance walk by this flower and life’s moments, or we can take a sniff and go deeper within, by faith. That is what I mean by faith.

Instead of only reading spiritual books, we prioritize and begin to experience reading the living book of life before us. We get weaned from always quoting others, and begin quoting from our own heart.

I believe that Chuang Tzu lived in this realm of faith’s nectar. When others saw a useless tree, because of his developed ability to see beyond, he transcended the commonness of this useless tree, and what illuminated before him was its wonderful usefulness. He participated in the opening and uncovering of the living page of life before him.

Let’s cultivate and nurture this faith.

To be continued….

You can check out Shawn's other musings here.