wow.....beautiful, and very well written i might add

I am really touched by this story. I will remember it well.

this read well.

it's not really my kind of stuff so I can't really comment on the content

thanks.

Very VERY well writ. I'm sure Horseyboy will appreciate it as much as I do. Actually, since he's a writer, moreso!

Thanks i am glad you like it.

Atomicat was right!

I really like the imagery of this work of provocative thought.

To have seen and reflected on your inner thoughts, to feel more like a part of the whole over the Ego of the self like you have has already taken you to an understanding very few stop and realize they have, don't have or simply ignore. Because we have such a steep learning curve in the time we have it's easy to get caught up in the overwhelming paths others have taken. Some survive others fall by the wayside and time goes on.

I haven't formally read or studied Taoism but for various reasons some have said I have become quite Zen in nature. I just try to do the right thing and live life like it means something in hopes other will do the same.

i used to go to a Taosit temple and the teacher there always figured i would someday have my own. but i thought a lot about Right Action and Right Thought as applied to the Tao. and the Tao is basically the Way. and i realized that if one follows the Tao in the way that brings happiness and flow to one's life as it should it is not really a process of changing oneself as much as accepting oneself and simple being oneself. Right Thought and Right Action are not really proscribed rituals and ways of being as in following another but in Being in Touch with your own Tao. your own flow. it is when you live as others want you to that you get conflicted. when you deny your own desires and your own whims that you become confused. you will have no desires if you simply eat the icecream when you want to or nap when you feel like it or say skip down the street. Almost like being a kid but also having the adult knowledge of why you are doing it. Living your own way and dealing with one's own consequences and realizing that people will treat you badly at first because they are scared to follow thier own flow because they have been told not to that they will be swept away and at first one can be but eventually you just go with it. I know i have fallen back to the bottom of late but that will not last.

As with rides that change so shall we with all ups, downs and the dead calms. How we manuver though these times determins where we are so as to know what direrection your in, What to prepare for the text one. But it is an ever lasting circle truely without end just how can you live in thast never ending. Change and thus give your self a little innre and expressive peace, other may find inspiring to spread good for gooness sake without expecting any praise or compensation just to do it because it need to be done among those can do it.

Calmly facing fear and not letting all of those scary emotions that want to jump out an save your ass from a fate worse than death. Be aware that there are soe that i even if they were made aware it have ridden those up and down to placed not many come back to tell the tales. KNowing you are there or close ot it will give to preparation when it happens if if get that far and what you'll be able to to do to get back out of it.

Can't a rock be a fish or a bird or anything else and still be a rock? can't rocks be smooth and rough? and isn't this fun, chipping and moving...?

a rock can be many things but it will also always be a rock. and knowing that one is a rock helps you to know what one cannot be. tossed through the air one may feel like a bird but someday you will fall out of the sky and it will be a great challenge to one;s reality. where as if one knows it is a rock flying though the air pretending to be a bird then it also knows that it will come down and bounce or roll or sink is some mud or go through a window or a little persons braincase and will not be conflicted when this happens. it will enjoy the flight for as long as it lasts and then deal with the hit like a rock should! By splattering the persons brains over the landscape and rolling in them.

I donno, I always thought that perceptions on one's self were maliable.

but one is still oneself no matter who or what he thinks he is. so one can be many things but also shall always be who and what he is at the core. once one accepts the core, the true self and then allows that to be the truth of the matter the rock can then be anything the rock wants. a tool, a weapon, something beautiful in a zen garden, polished and comforting or rough and abrasive. a door stop, a collectible, fine sand that can be shaped by wind or wave or little kids with buckets, sitting in a birds or lizards crop helping to grind down food. starting a landslide killing thousands, becoming part of a building, being polished to a great luster and beauty and being made into jewelry, crushed into powder and being used as a drying agent or condiment, sculpted into something of lasting power and grace by an artist, being held by me and be populated by endless cultures or solitary being or whatever i imagine, hurtling through the void and being a falling star that someone wishes on right before ripping the back end off a buick and later being cut and polished into a thing of pure awesome. or even having a note tied to you and thrown through a window. perhaps melted and mixed to make something new. but through it all one is still just a rock and a rock is a wonderfully wondrous thing to be

yes. it rocks.