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Monday, July 20, 2009

The Long and Winding Road

It is hard to learn something new if you take the same path that you took yesterday. The sage while cultivating good habits is still open to traveling new paths in life.
~ Today's Daily Quote from The TaoWoods Center ~

We live in a world -- western industrial society -- that tries hard to present life as linear. How to get from Point A to Point B in the shortest amount of time. Turns are represented as razor sharp right angles. The efficient organization has a strict hierarchy with these same kinds of straight lines and sharp angles. Successful individuals are expected to function via this same pattern as well.

The Judeo-Christian mentality underscores this perspective. We are taught there is a beginning and an end to all things. Our lives begin at our individual starting line and move straight toward our finish line which doubles as the start line for heaven.

For all our focus on lines and angles, the real world around us is shaped more by circles and cycles. While we are taught that day is day and night is night, our senses tell us that each holds a component of the other and they each melt into each other in an endless cycle.

The same can be said for the seasons. While the calendar may indicate that one day is winter and the next is spring, the weather itself is not bound by such silly notions.

I recently realized that this overarching perspective may affect some visitors to this blog when they read about the repeated references to each person finding their own path. Because of linear thinking, such folks may get the wrong idea and think I'm suggesting that each person adopt one singular path that moves in a straight line.

Throughout our lives we may each walk on numerous paths and many of these paths will be anything but straight! Life throws different obstacles in our way and, if we walk with our heads down, we'll trip over them again and again. Sometimes, all that is needed is to sidestep the obstacle and continue on our merry way. At other times, however, we may discover that our path is clogged with obstacles and the sensible thing to do is to blaze a new path.

In the end, the emphasis on paths as a metaphor in Taoist thought is that we each need to find our own. The number of paths is immaterial. Some of your pathways may end up being very straight and, if so, there's not a thing wrong with that. Other pathways may be long and winding; that too is okay.

Just make sure it's YOUR path -- not someone else's.

4 comments:

  1. Now Val, just remember that since I'm a person with Asperger's, I often have difficulty reading faces. :D)

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  2. At other times, however, we may discover that our path is clogged with obstacles and the sensible thing to do is to blaze a new path.

    I like that a lot.

    I am a bit like that, but out of balance. That is, I seem to change paths at the first sign of A obstacle. Maybe an obstacle or two isn't so bad. Perhaps I need to fight a little before giving up.

    However, I seem to be pretty good at knowing that there are more obstacles on the way along this path. Who knows? Maybe I should just be me, as you said on your closing.

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  3. Lorena,
    Obstacles, in and of themselves, aren't bad. It simply is how we deal with them. Besides that, we can't avoid them completely. It's a natural part of life. Also, if there were no obstacles, there would be no wisdom as wisdom is borne by overcoming mistakes.

    I think the point I was trying to make is that, many times, we can choose to move around or over or under them and chalk it up to another life lesson learned. However, if we choose a path that is strewn with obstacles every step along the way, this is a good indication it may not be the best path.

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