Tao 39/Day 177 “The Master views the parts with compassion, because he understands the whole.”
Note to self – Call Noah and book a reservation on the ark.  It’s pouring rain for about the tenth day in a row, and I’m sitting in the park parking lot deciding if I’m crazy enough to hop out of the car and onto the trail.  Just as I’m about to head home, a young couple and their chocolate Labrador retriever come happily sloshing back to their Subaru.  I get out and announce, “Well, I guess you guys have talked me into it!” and the guy calls after me with a, “Yeah, not bad – It’s not like it’s minus twenty or thirty or anything!” In fact, there are lots of runners out today.  We share a strange camaraderie as we jog past each other in smilin

Tao 68/Day 175 “Not that they don’t love to compete, but they do it in the spirit of play.”
I’m positively giddy. Today’s meditation has me buzzing.  ‘Play’ is my favorite topic – the key to inner fitness and a spirit “in harmony with the Tao.”  Just silently repeating the word as a mantra works wonders as I start to play in this mid-morning rain.  Play adjusts my stride, my lean, play minimizes the jolt to my joints and maximizes my joy to the world.  When I pass a kilometer sign with the number ‘7’ on it, I play with it in my mind – turning it upside down and backward to make an ‘L’ that stands for nothing at all. Mud puddles morph from obstacles into temptations as I play past their edges.  I play with my awareness as well as my breath

Tao 16/Day 173 “When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant.”
The ground is wetter than ever.  Last night’s winds have blown a couple of trees over.  One obstructs the trail, forcing a detour into tougher terrain.  A decent number of walkers are out to exercise their canine companions, but no more than four or five other runners currently care to brave these elements.  Nevertheless, the resulting silence and solitude serve me well, and — after another false start due to my still-tricky left knee – I find a good groove, without and within, and rejoice as I run with the Tao.  – I’ve recently viewed several stimulating conversations online via posts I’ve received from my Facebook community.  In them, scientists, ar

Tao 54/Day 170 “Let the Tao be present in your life and you will become genuine.”
Maureen has gotten me a ‘runner’s outfit’ to cope with the continued cold and wet.  Black, stretchy sports shirt with matching skin-tight pants.  I look like an ultra-lean licorice stick topped by a large balding bobble-head.  I suit up, face the elements, and hit the trail.  Not fifty yards in front of me is an attractive young blonde standing knee-deep in the numbing lake wearing nothing but a summer dress.  If she’s willing to do that for a photo shoot, what kind of weather wimp have I become?  I laughingly exclaim, “With that kind of commitment, I hope you land the cover of a magazine!”, and she returns a teeth-chattering smile and a thank you.  – No e

Tao 73, Tao 19/Day 166 “The Tao is always at ease. It overcomes without competing.” “Throw
I lope along now at a lazy pace while fellow mud-and-distance lovers – mostly ladies – take the lead.  The concept of overcoming, or ‘winning’ — with ease, without competing — goes against everything I was ever taught about how to be successful in life.  Yet my own journey on this path has confirmed its validity in a very visceral way.  I’m not competing with anybody out here, but that hasn’t prevented me from any number of ‘personal bests’.  On the contrary, it’s been the very means by which those ‘bests’ have become accessible (I put the word ‘bests’ in quotes because relishing in play rather than competition means not paying much at