Move and Be Moved

Julie - thanks for your contributions, which i read again as the sun stretches to its furthest reach. I'm not a father, too selfish i suppose -- or rather a mutual decision by sentient adults (my partner and I) not to go down that path. Actually taking on such responsibility? Well, I can't begin to imagine the joy, the challenge, the utter necessity to grow up oneself and model back conscious behaviour & choices... always trusting that this tiny & beloved package of DNA will grow up and make those kind of choices -- entirely his or her own, not mine, not "the master above the people" ... which is how my dad (a man of his generation) was conditioned to behave -- patriarchal, the unquestioned authority. (To reference your second tao saying: My master was a 'he,' not 'she.' And we 'he' incarnations do so love our competition.)

Simplicity, patience, compassion ... hmmm, now that I'm "wiser" and he's been gone for five years, I can see that he embodied exactly these things - not the shadow father who i waged war with, but the human being, flesh/bone/blood, as complex and marbled as the next person.

Sunday passed by unnoticed and unmarked here - so it is good for me to read these words again today and come to terms with he who set me off on the path I find myself on at mid-life ... an unorthodox path, a moving path, an openhearted & trusting path I hope and intend ... and yet one i can choose to walk down with his dignity: Simple, patient, compassionate. How worthy to do this and yet how difficult. I can but try ... and try again when i fail.