Life leads the thoughtful man on a path of many windings.
Now the course is checked, now it runs straight again.
Here winged thoughts may pour freely forth in words,
There the heavy burden of knowledge must be shut away in silence.
But when two people are at one in their inmost hearts,
They shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts,
Their words are sweet and strong, like the fragrance of orchids.
Confucius (quoted in the I Ching, Wilhelm version, for hexagram 13. T'ung Jen / Fellowship with Men)
My life has been on many winding paths of late. The anniversary of my brain injury (January 23) hit me unexpectedly as I have skipped over it for years. At the same time, I've been watching the tiniest shoots of something simple and real sprouting from my bodhisattva vows. Mostly, this has not been a time for words. Even in my own mind I'm staying pretty well silent and just letting things Be.
Still, it's good to "show up" now and again. I'm still here, and never far away in my inmost heart.
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