Taoism in the real world

I laugh a bit at the title of this blog. Years ago I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was definitely a late 20th century spiritual classic, though at the time I could never quite enter its world. What did tending a motorcycle have to do with me living my best life?? Taoism was much the same. Perhaps I simply wasn't ready to believe that a good life could unfold without constantly striving toward the next goal. Today, though, the word maintenance has found it

I shared a line from a poem about finding allies in nature on a Reddit board, and among other responses was this: If you want to be seen, allow yourself to be lonely. This spoke to me deeply. Why? Among other things, it reminded me that so often Lao Tzu tells us to do the opposite of what we would like to see happen in our lives: If we wish to earn respect, we are told to take a place beneath others. If we wish for knowledge and understanding, we are asked to rest in unknowin