Week 1, Day 6

Small steps to start.
Your Path will not lead to the end of the rainbow. 

One of the keys to following The Way is patience because good things take time. Even when we are on our Path – when we are answering to the dictates of our inner self – nothing happens immediately; the stone steps are long and do not lead immediately to our summits. 

Nor does Tao promise the end of the rainbow – only the life we are meant to live. Those expecting immediate splendor from any new spiritual or religious discipline are deluding themselves. 

These are appropriate precepts on which to end your first week following Tao. Earlier this week we talked about searching your inner self and reckoning the talents you were born with, which will form the anchor for making your time serve you. If you’ve identified these talents – what you have a knack for, what you can do well, and what are best left others – you are now armed with the wisdom to know what you are about. Hard earned and well done because few ever get this far and this is a great way to end the first week on your Path. 

Thought for the Day
The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life.
Henry David Thoreau
Walden

One of the things Taoists try to do as much as possible is dismissing labels. For example – and as you will hear here from time to time – success and failure exist only and relation to one another; take one away and the other disappears, as well, leaving us only with the effort we chose to put into something. 

Similarly, the term ‘poetic or divine life” is completely subjective and a Taoist would tend to dismiss it. However, it’s useful here if only differentiate from lives where time is squandered. For a Taoist, a poetic or divine life is a life spent on their Path. They realize it probably will not lead to living down the ages, but it will lead to one of life’s great prizes: a life with no time squandered, a life where every day was a step forward toward the life they were meant to live.