Line by Line - Verse 56, Line 6

and unravel the complications of things;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Simplify your problems.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Unravel the knots
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Let go of your worries.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

Throughout the life of this blog, I've shared with you my ongoing problems with anxiety. I have a strong tendency to get all worked up about various potentialities that might happen and, in most cases, the physical and mental stress of the worry itself far outstrips the actual physical or mental pain of the situation as it occurs!

A popular way to describe this trait is to say that a person gets all tied up in knots. I think it's an apt description because that's how I often feel!! While I most likely will have to contend with this issue for the rest of my life, I do feel I am making a bit of progress. There have been several situations within the last year in which I decided to focus less on what might happen and instead deal with what does happen.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.