Be like water.

Do, or do not.

It’s been said a thousand ways by a thousand faces; from Yoda to Pooh, and Jesus too. If there is a mystic who didn’t… he (or she) probably isn’t.

For many years I’ve lived with that verse of the Tao t’Ching as a guiding constellation and held it before me as a shield against those who thought I was taking poor care of myself.

Emulating water has gifted me a life that was unimaginable to the version of me that took a knife to his own throat. These extra years have been filled with miraculous impossibility, adventure, and epic romance.

On the flip side, it has encouraged passivity, a seeming(?) lack of ambition, a certain level of self-ignorance, and what I’ve been told is called “spiritual bypassing.”