Halloween at the Cove *Reflective Dao*

Oh so many moons ago, the man used to do so much on the days with a symbol of the pumpkin. So long ago seems like it was another life, another time, and another era. So long that it hardly seems like the same person could survive time that long.

Ever just sit and think back along your life, along the snowy paths that brought you to reflect, and finally realized that you have lived a long life? That events in life changed and shaped you. Those same events that were shaping you in a positive direction also setting you up to be ripped away so you fall, but falling to where, how long, and where will you land?

Remembering times, where you dressed up, and went to the church for Halloween. Halloween also brings the great perspective of fall and harvest. Working in the fields picking the fruit and vegetables, putting hay down to protect others crops from the winter cold.

Remember the months that surround it, the Appleseed Festival with all the Apple Jam, the cool crisp are the fall warning of winter. Hay rides with friends, hunting, and the parade of kids at school for the parents dressed in costumes.

The birthday of my brother following suit after Halloween. Canning of the harvest to last all winter, cooking creating food to feed the family. Ketchup, tomatoes, pickles, and much more. The smells from the kitchen going throughout the house. A simpler time where one struggles to try to get back to. However with every step you take trying to get back to that lifestyle, you seem to be getting farther away.

Trace though and find a little different way of celebration. A respect to the fallen. Dressed in a trench coat you go to a graveyard instead of to the living people door, something occurred where the dead are more pleasing to spend the holiday than the living. A relaxed feeling comes over you when you visit the dead.

Is it the fact that you are unafraid of death, wish for death, or is it just quiet enough to gain your relaxation? No being trying to compromise your being, no backstabbing happens from the dead, and trust is never disrupted by the dead.

Moving further down the trail, you spend the day with a child, taking him from door to door, making sure he is safe. Never intending him to eat the candy he is collecting. Throwing it out and giving him the candy you bought for him, as trusting a strangers candy is deadly. Was not so back in the time of the parades at the school, and the festival at Appleseed, but now it has become a very evil world, and a very evil time.

Remember how fun the kid had, reversing the roles of your own parents during those many moons ago. Having a different fun, but not as enjoyable as those many moons ago. Becoming an adult drained the purity of having fun out of you and left this empty shell of a kid.

The responsibilities, the pressure of society or of work, the bills, and money all seemed to drain a man of his purity. His purity in having fun, in living without concern. The images of the world's evil deeds forming in his mind. How can one truly spend a day of the dead with the living and the living evil of the world.

Listening to Misfits song title for this day. "Little dead are out in droves, I remember Halloween" somewhere along the song it states, "Candy Apples and razor blade, little dead are soon in graves". Be careful this Halloween.

Remember the bonfires, as a kid roasting hot dogs, marsh mellows, etc. Feeling the warmth in the cool night. Seeing the glow of yellow, red and occasionally a blue flame licking the logs and tree branches. As a teen watching it and having a wine cooler or beer.

Run toward that which you had you will realize it gets farther away. This means many things, and can apply to many instances in life. Somehow the choices that were presented were not a clear as thought to be when they were made. Choices reflected on seem cloudy at best. Ability to think of many different solutions in an instant has been honed and when used to reflect back on, it makes one wonder the following: What the hell?

Realizing and accepting that this was what it was before all the choices, realizing that this will always be present. When you die will a person take up your position? Will they walk among the dead and give them company the Halloween that you can no longer be present for?

Will I have an apprentice, a person to succeed me? Even as twisted as the tree trunk of my soul is, I still seem calm, I still can find peace on Halloween, this night is my night. This night gives my shattered soul a break, a peaceful night that allows rest. The one time in a year my mind empties and allows me time to come to a point where my demons, my darkness can relax and stop showing me things.

Stop showing my friends cheating on people, backstabbing people, or whatever evil thought is going through their minds. The peace of those helped and their demons coming to show me those deeds that have in the past been done to my friends, all these rest on this one night.

Pick Christmas for presents, pick Thanksgiving for food, my holiday is the one night I feel fully at peace and that is Halloween. Still remembering back then and living now, it makes me want to go back in time and freeze it, to live in that section for years at a time.

I miss my childhood, I miss the life I once had. I miss the life because now I understand what I once had as a child. I remember being in touch with most of nature, and was able to navigate the wilds with an internal compass.

I miss those days. I lost them and even though I try to walk back to those days it seems that they are always still a little far to get to. Funny, when kids are young they want to grow up, and even though they may not admit it, those that are adults wish to return to childhood. Ironic how much we do not understand as a child and sometimes as an adult.

Happy Harvest my friends be really safe.

Full Circle *Reflective Dao*

Love the dark, and things in the dark. I missed it the last 8 years. Shortly after I left high school, I went on a path that was not destined to be mine, I took a side step. Many of them at that.

Circle of life, circle of death, circle of destiny, circle of love, circle of hate, circles so many circles. Poetically beautiful, and ironically true. Things go round and round, what goes around comes around, what you do will come back to you. All a concept of being a circle.

What we come from we return to. Where we left, we return. Continue turning right and you will return to the starting point. Welcome to Geometry 101, lets go over some basic elements shall we. Name your shapes in Geometry. Circle, Square, Triangle, Rhombus, Rectangle, and LINE. Line. Shortest distance between two point is a line, but not so in quantum physics.

Most people think linear, or in lines. This does not work for me. If all things created are done in cycles and circles, then how can a line truly comprehend the elegance of things. The earth goes around the sun, spins around in a circles on an axis, making the sun appear as if it is circling the Earth. Cycles and circles, circles and cycles, where is the line in that.

You wake, you sleep, you wake. A cycle of sleep, until you die and sleep forever, but that is a cycle of death. A circle with in a circle. All circles contained in another circle. A circle of healing used in acupuncture. Is it odd that things occur in cycles and in circles. What is the shortest point between 2 points?

Going through life and reflecting like I have been doing this whole time. I realize that I have traveled a rotation in the circle. I have come full circle. It is inevitable that people come full circle, it is inevitable that you are born with your mother around, but die for the most part alone during the last hour. Even if your not alone, you are still alone in the concepts of the mind, in the last hour of life the mind feels alone, but not a bad alone, a reflective alone. Alone to think of all the good times in your life, and all the accomplishments.

Though the reflection I realize what has occurred. I realize some of the things I did, I did for a reason, some were part of the setup of the cycle. Some were preparations of preparing for the downward fall of the circle, to help work upward to the beginning again.

Things that made me feel comfortable, or protected, were things most people do not think of. My Duster (trench Coat) is like a safety blanket to a child, my rock music, my games of fantasy, and the 4 walls I rarely venture out of. Not being around strangers or where strangers can be idiots to get attention, or harass me, I am alright for the most part.

Surprised I did not get more flack for wearing the Duster to work today. New shift tomorrow, doubt there will be much said.

It is a full circle though with little differences that I can see. I am to the point where trying to find another companion is a waste of energy, it is a waste of time. That is what I tell myself, but in actuality there is more, I do not feel like putting myself into an uncomfortable position with a strange female, and put those masks back on.

I hate the mask, I hate getting the fake face of being happy when really I am uncomfortable. I hate the mask of trying to look comfortable when out in public when in reality I try to avoid going out. I like the world, but hate how people truly are. They lie, steal, cheat, and treat others very rude. I dislike that, at least in the confines of my own little apartment I do not have to deal with many of them. Just the rude neighbors.

Same as I felt many years ago. I broke out of it, and once more I return full circle to where I was. Without a companion, without a care on society, with some friends that understand I rarely contact them, but do care about them, and live with disgust toward society, toward the majority of people. I am nice any chance I get to strangers, but I do not go out of my way to see strangers, when I leave my walls I quickly return.

Funny that is how I was back then, and that is how I am now. Difference though is now that I have experienced marriage, and divorce I have lived it all, and realized I did not like that situation. The best way to prevent a situation is to avoid it at all costs. What better way but to avoid the world, and communicate through something I really love.... Writing.

Talk about full circle, I used to write all the time, for 8 years the world lost my writings, and now once more they came back.

Stop thinking linear, as your life is circular, a cycle, and will rotate around and around. Each rotation presenting slight differences.

Lost Thoughts Lost Times.

During my week and reading blogs and messages from people, and noticing it in my writings. A common theme has been hit, a common idea that we all have had at one point or another. Searching for a picture for this idea I came across the following, I think it suits my idea of and my personality of the idea. A road less traveled.

Consequently this looks like an ideal place for a Doaist to meditate, a place to find yourself or a place that few if any has ever visited.

Themes that have come across lately is winter, many people seem to be in winter. Not the season around you, but the season in the heart and soul. Frozen in time, things locked in time with the inability to move forward.

Footsteps of the past seem to fade slightly day by day but yet you can still see the trail from where one has come and where one is. Look forward and nothing but a white field with no path is present. Just a haze of past and present to focus on.

Afraid to continue a path without first realizing where one has been, afraid that decisions made here would continue down a path of heartache and despair. Trying to make logical sense of all the past decisions and figure out how you ended up here. I still wonder these questions.

I look back as ask the what if, where would I be questions. I look back and wonder where those I used to be a lover too currently are. Some think I would do this out of spite, hoping ill upon them. The opposite is actually truth, Truth is once I found her and found out she is alright in life, and she found a happiness, it does take a little pressure off my heart.

I have worried for years about her, worried about the paths she would take, worried that she may not have found happiness. I was never interested in starting something back up, never wanted to bring her back into my walking night terror of a life. I did my best to hide it from the last person in my life, ironic how the night terror was not the cause of the split.
I am relieved though and she has found a joy in the young precious soul she brought to our cruel dark world. Just another soul that can rely on me to watch out for. Anything that child needed, or my friend Amy those kids would have. Odd huh winter in my soul and heart, yet a child can immediately melt the ice, just for it to freeze again.

A foot step here a footstep there. You see the first step and how you messed it up, you realize the what if factor of life. What if I tried harder with her, what if I showed her how much I loved her back then. Alas a childish action, a childish thought made a collapse of a relationship. You realize that the first snow covered footstep was the start of the long weary walk. With some deep entrenched steps on the way. The questions of what if, the realization of possibility that decisions possibly destroyed your life.

With frozen winter set in, you wish to cry, to let it out, but water does not flow in winter, it is trapped in time, not allowed to move. Locked in a lake of ice, the emotions are trapped. Write about them, try to get them out, but still even writing only allows the air to move and add some relief, all your really want to do is find the answers so time can move on. Find out the answer that maybe the decisions you made were not so disastrous. That maybe they were some how correct during that time.

Winter lasts a long time within, and even though there has been warm days, I think that winter is more of my life than I really want to admit. Possibly loosing winter and going to summer is scarier than being alone. Still their is a part that everyone shares in life that wants the companionship, wants to hold another, and wants to build a life.

You realize that your life has demons, that you have a bad side and push those people away in order to protect them, even though it hurts to do so. You hope they find someone that can do more for them than you could. Once the paths separate and time passes, one thinks why they chose to do such things. They think about what that person is doing, how they are, and what will occur in their lives. Not wishing for a moment of pain for them, only the joy and happiness of a blissful life.

Yes, and Yes to answer the questions. From one footstep in the snow to the next you track the chain of events. You get to the last deep footprint in the snow, and realize this pain comes from this step. It is a fresher wound that you are dealing with, a deeper piercing cold that just seems not to warm up. What could you have done, what could you have said, what if???? What if???

Lost inside, lost in your self and your thoughts. Locked in time to figure out what was, what could be, what should have been. Knowing the answer would not matter, that the time for the past and time to do it right with her is over, but not wanting to let it go, not able to let it go, due to an analytical mind. Answers need, truth wanted, a warm body to hold, a mind that can keep up, a person to share dark and light with.

Follow the footsteps and see the next deep impact of my life. She has a significant other, however I still fear she is a troubled person, I have doubts she cleaned up her drug or theft issues in life. She claimed to of had a child and it was mine, truth is... It is possible, but when being cheated on with 4 other people it is hard to say it is without scientific data, still I watch from the shadows, as it was not the child's fault. Still I wish her well, i hope she finds the thing that gets her free, gets her mind into a calmer place.

Next deep impact, the last deep impact, the one that currently has fresh depth the step. I know I was not to be with her for a long time, only to help raise her child to a certain point, I love her like I love most people in my life, no more than the first, no less than the one before her. The emotion is there regardless. Love is there, and I hope she does find a great guy she can remarry, more importantly I hope she finds how to treat a guy and how to show them love in order for her relationships to work. I also wish nothing but the best for HER son.

So why am I walking this path, did I really touch any of their lives, and if so was it in anyway positive? What about those I did not have intimate relations with, friends, did I really have an impact in their lives? When I die on this realm of existence will I become immortal in the hearts of others? At least I know one person that will keep me close, he was a guy I met and helped direct his life, brought him into the practice of Quantum thought instead of linear. He states he plans on telling his kids of me and keep me alive within him. Makes me sad really. Honestly, it does.

Why keep a tortured person alive, why keep a person in your heart who really did nothing but desire a better life for you, no reason just wanted more for you. Why keep them in the heart if they really did not want anything in return. Then again how can you be immortal if others do not remember you and pass your memory to others. Oh dear Lao Tze what a dilemma I just got myself into, how would you handle such a contradiction?

You asked if it was odd to talk to you, I said yes and no. Yes it is because I love you still today, not intimately of course, not as an ex-boyfriend looking to get back together, but as a friend. My love is endless for all of you, words can not even come close to the depths I really feel, however I am still scared of loosing you, loosing you in this world, loosing my dear friend, or loosing a lover of past footprints. It scares me it feeds all the other thoughts that scare the living breathe out of me, it feeds the death that continues to eat at me. I am afraid to loose all the little ones, all the joys of my life.

I am afraid of the inevitable so I have pushed away and watched from far away, tracked and tried to follow from outside sources. Not an easy task, and even hit dead ends. I see though I had nothing to worry about, and that gives me hope in the current position of this ice covered field. I can start a new path soon, I can continue on, but walking a field alone is so boring, so lonely, and so cold. Destiny to walk alone, to touch as many lives as I can before I go talk to King Yama, and be judged.

Most of the sensations of my life are dull, some completely gone. But in winter it gives you a great idea of where you been and where you are. Once you accept that and realize that life outside your own may have become better as a result of a decision you made, then living with a burden on your shoulders seems a little easier.

::Listening to: Iron Maiden :: Fear of the Dark

Protector in the Cove *Darker Dao*

If things demand balance in life, then there is a person with the total opposite life as you. Look in the mirror, see the true you, and then picture your life completely opposite of your own. Unless by chance you are the version of your life in the balanced neutral area of both worlds.

If your kind, generous and filled with pure thoughts, now picture a person yourself with evil, dark intentions. One must take into considerations when reviewing life, what section of life do they fit, what have they done, and where they have gone in order to determine which side of the scale they fit upon.

Was their a lot of negative actions taken? I am sure there was, but there was good behind the actions as well. Does it all balance out. The fact that living in the middle with both sides pulling at the person at once, become a war within, becomes a weight upon the keystone of the soul.

Is it the world that weighs upon you? How can the world weigh upon you when the world itself is nothing more than an planet filled with great things. Possibly society weighs upon you, social interaction, or possibly the fact that you are alone. The thoughts of more to life, thoughts of a person to fully understand and love your splits. One that can essentially repair the splits.

Happiness, sadness, elation, depression are just words, words with no weight, how can one say they have these if one truly does not know what they are to begin with. If not shown what these are when one was a child, not allowed to experience these how can one truly believe in what they say when they talk to others about how they feel.

How do you feel today? Happy even though your not truly elated or smiling you say happy because it is one of those days your mind is in the lighter side, and you used depressed when on the darker side. Reality is that you truly do not know what these feeling are, you know what their supposed to mean but still even those definitions lack what you feel. Inability to feel during these days, inability to release, to finally tear down the many castles that were build, the walls that have been erected to keep all living creatures out. A barren castle, but rock solid. Time tears down many castles most put up, however for master stone layers, and master protectors building a castle that can not just fall is an easy task.

A whole life lived as a protector of people, even from the shadows of the world. From an alley you watch those close to you, those you care about and would not see harm upon, from the distance you keep a watch of them, keep tabs on them in order to step in front of the knife or gun when needed.

Looking from the distance and pushing away to protect them from loosing you. Pushing them away so that it makes life easier to leave if needed. Pushing away in hopes that they find better, find more companionship than you can offer at that point.

Spending time for a brief section of a persons life to bring them from the lower pits of hell back to solid ground of earth. Turn a life around and one must be destroyed. The protector and teacher takes the destruction into themselves, so none have to leave with it, so none have to go through it, none but the protector.

Torture within raging from the experiences of others, taking the torment from them and into yourself. Living with broken hearts, living with trust issues after being stabbed, living with a life that has gone far south that despair is always present. Though not happening to the protector to start, protecting is keeping the experiences of others locked inside. Taking their pain so they can move on. How it so weighs the soul, how it so makes rest fitful if at all possible.

Yet with all the weight and all the sorrow, if that is what one can call it. The protector seems to view himself as small, insignificant as the protector can not help mass amounts of people, the lives he touched seem important to him, but not enough can be done, those helped are now gone and doing fine. Watched from the distance, protect them without being seen doing so.

A way to let go of the tortures that were kept inside from others lives, the pain from the broken heart, the trust of humanity from the crazy that stabs his wife 16 times. How can people be trusted when one has put themselves into a world where all you see is torment, betrayal, and disgust. Yet the protector shows them how to overcome all these, though he himself is incapable of doing so themselves.

Balance, imagine a person unable to protect, not willing to relieve the sorrows of another, yet able to form relations, able to trust people, able to interact with others. Is it trust? Trust is something that many people give openly because they really don't care what happens, they really do not put a lot of faith into the person they are around. They are firm believers that their own castles will protect them if the trust is broken.

Imagine a person unable to see from the darkness and see the treats of things to those surrounding his life. Yet happy, enjoyable, and able to find company with others.

Balance. How can it be unfair, if balance exists then how can we be upset at our lives, at what we do in them. How can we be upset even if it is not an grand life, if we are alone, if things just don't go the way we want them too. If it did then your opposite would suffer the consequences.

What makes a protector? Empathic ability, with a strong castle, but no matter how strong a castle is, it can be destroyed if not constantly worked upon, strengthened and reinforced. In doing so more and more is lost of the original person, most is obscured from the world. How much more will it take before all ties to the world are cut, till you find yourself shivering in a corner not willing to come out, not wanting to face anyone.

Not wanting to see the light of day, nor the beauty the world has to offer. Not seeing a beautiful woman and able to enjoy the sight without the thought of betrayal by such a person. Betrayal or seeing the person take advantage of you, of your kindness, and then squeezing the very life out of you. What life is left after this occurs, what life can one lead but to scorn and scoff at the normal society interactions, to see the pure evil that is in it, and to withdraw from society.

Ever really wanted to know the truth, go to the mall and watch people, go to a playground and watch the human interaction from afar. Watch for the signs people give. Eventually for a brief moment their mask will come off, and the horror of who that person is will come to light. Once released the mask is quickly adjusted and the truth covered up once more.

Scary thing can be seen from the alley, from the distance watching of people. Things that show that being distant is salvation for those that don't ever want hurt, crushed or oppressed. Something some forget occasionally but then reminded just as quickly that it is not destined for them to get close to those they wish to protect. A protector is a protector and can never be anything but that.

During Winter at the Cove *Brighter Dao*

Green in the cove, has long been gone. The cove is now covered with the cold white powder of snow. The stream that once flowed in the back of the cove has since become ice. The Daoists still come to talk about everything even in these difficult conditions. Traveling in the snow, with the appendage numbing chill in the air, bring thoughts of warmth and thoughts of her.

She is not with the Daoist as he walks to the cove, but she is in his heart everywhere he goes. A physical connection hoped for, but a spiritual, or conceptual idea of her is sufficient enough to keep him striving for more.

A person he has never met, but has always loved dearly floats on the tip of his mind. As the Doaist realized he was not moving due to the thoughts he takes his coats and tightens them up substituting the thought of her warmth with the warmth of the coats. How, soon he starts to think of her, having a picture in his mind but not clear enough to see her face, feeling her warm body against his but never able to have the physical connection with the person in his mind.

Soon the Daoist finds himself in the cove, the first one today to show. On a day like this many of the others will not show up. He can to the cove to think more so than to discuss the cultivation of oneself. He wanted to contemplate on this person, on her and the reason the cold has sparked her image into his memory more often.

He glances over to see a stone of white jade sitting in the cove, brought by one of the other Daoist brothers. The brothers idea was to make the old man a stone chair to sit in while they discussed cultivating oneself. He grabbed a hammer and chisel and started to chip away a little at a time from the rock, all the while he had several questions he was wrestling with about her.

Why is it in the Feast of Winter, this image has risen? The thoughts of being held by her warm body, her gentle touch across the forehead, a hand ran through the hair, and the joy of an door opening and seeing her welcome you home with a hug and genuine happiness.

Waking up on the cold morning with her and walking to the kitchen, talking to each other as Hot Cocoa is made, what warm thoughts one has in the cold environment. What would the elder say about such thoughts, such ideas?

The elder coming into the cove some time ago, was sitting on the stump. Watching the young Daoist, realizing that he was deep in a meditative thought, of pure warmth the elder decided to walk in the forest instead of staying in the cove. On his way out he met one of the brothers and requested that he make sure the cove is not disturbed today. One of the brothers is inside and is in deep meditation.

As the day dragged on the Daoist in thought became warmer, as the thoughts of her rushed in at a more intense pace, and the work of the stone making his body create heat. Thoughts of coming home and spontaneously dancing with her. Eating a meal together, side by side. He caress her face, feels the warmth upon his fingers, as they continue shaping the white jade.

Her soft spoken words coming into his mind warming his thoughts, but the words are unable to be made out. He sees her lips move, and hears a voice, but the content is lost in his thoughts. Just the image of her standing there in her gown with a smile, brings such warmth to his cold body, to his tortured soul it is like the hot cocoa on a very cold morning.

To hold her in his sleep, to hold her in his waking hours. Doing what he can to keep the smile from fading, doing what he can to keep her image in his thoughts. As the chair comes together closer with each passing thought, the white jade takes shape. The shape reflecting his thoughts of this intangible love, of the woman he has loved from the beginning but has never met.

Thoughts of having a family with her, a daughter to share warmth with in the long winter nights, to cherish for eternity, to share the cocoa with. Long flowing hair, gowns and the little princess attitude, brings a warm smile to his face as the temperatures drop around him.

The chair now completed and tools put up the Daoist looks at the chair, and with tears freezing he weeps at the beauty of the chair, the beauty that physically form from thoughts of a woman he has never met warming his soul, his heart, his body.

He pulls the chair next to the stump and sits down with his head in his hands. Bringing the questions back into focus. Why do I think of warmth in the dead of winter? The elder would say that it is a sign of balance, that even in winter with signs of cold, and signs of death, there must be the opposite present as well. Thoughts of warmth, and thoughts of life.

To dream of a woman I have never met, is it wishful thinking? The Daoist thinks about the question while bringing the long haired woman into his thoughts. Possibly wishful, partly fantasy, partly something he is looking for in a mate, a companion, a lover.

The Daoist suddenly realizes that none of this matters, the questions are just questions. Lao Sure would say, that this is not the only world one may live in, but in the mind there are many realms and many gateways to worlds that can be defined as real as the one finding them wants them to be.

She is my heart, my kindness, my salvation from torment. years may pass and many girlfriends may come and go, but she will always have a section of my mind. A place to rest when this world get to be too much, a place where I can rest and sleep.

A place where no storms rage, no secondary motives exist, just the pure interaction between my wife, and myself. My love and my warmth. Who is she, she is second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit... But she is my salvation, my imagination, and she exists in the world I created in my mind. A world that may seem confusing to many out there, but it makes complete sense to me.

:Listing to Ronnie James Dio

Twilight of the Cove... *Darker Dao*

The opening in the jade was filled with green. Trees opens into a complete circle with a stream of clear blue water running in the back of the circle. In the middle is a stump that provides for a good chair for the elder Daoist to sit upon as he lectures.

From the shade of green from the trees gave way to the name. Jade Cove, and on nights like this the old Daoist lectures. Nights that have a chill in the air, a night where the moon glows very brightly making ghostly images upon the water and within the trees.

Dao is a harmony within oneself, Harmony creating neither brightness or darkness within oneself. Happiness only exists as a result of living through sadness. To have honor is to jump feet first into disgrace.

To lead a life walking in the dark one must carry a candle inside to light the soul. To play with fire is to get burned, but to play with ice you may be frozen. Three is the magic number to a balance.

3 Aspect of a human mind. Ego, Id and Superego. One is light, one is dark, and the other is somewhere in the space where both meet. The balance between the two. Three this three that, with one you can't have the other, but both exist opposite of each other, but both must meet too.

The human soul has 3 ideas or sections as well. The grand light, the great darkness, and the state of rest. With all our abilities to perform good or bring joy into the world we perform the grand light. However with such greatness comes darkness as well, because one may not exist without the other. Death, pain, despair, destruction are all tools of the great darkness. Somewhere in the soul is a place not destined to focus on working toward the greater good, or the destructive powers one has obtained.

The place between the grand light and the great darkness is the State of Rest. Thoughts float in an area not focused on anything, but touching everything. A place were emotions collide and beat each other into silence. Live in this place. Live in the place where the mind is silent, where emotions do not run wild. Impartial thoughts are not clouded by the dark, and not blinded by the light.

Birth, Life, and Death. You are currently in-between birth and death, but rarely does one treat it as a place where both meet. 3 is key number to balance all things. If you live in one extreme of the three, then you will perform the other extreme to balance out to a third area. Live the first half of life good and pleasing and the second half will be spent in solitude, or performing evil, and painful acts. Live balanced to begin with, you will end life balanced.

The old Daoist got up from the stump, and walked to the stream. Come here young ones, let me show you something. Take this stream, it is neither pure nor dirty, but one can drink from it. If the river was pure, then people would fight over it as they would treasure, and if it was dirty one sip would kill. It exists in the balanced area of the spectrum of things.

The tree does not live for the greater good, nor the greater evil. It is there to just exist, to bring balance and harmony within nature and nothing more. Between the to states exist the third state, the balanced are the clarity of the states. Each extreme outside the balance is either blinded by darkness or by light, and neither should be taken lightly, as a poor choice regardless of the side (light or dark) is still a poor choice. The best choice is the choice that is chosen while impartial.

:Listening to Iron Maiden "Tears of the Dragon"

Warmth of a Woman

The day gets colder, the icy grips of winter creeps in. Heaters are turned on, blankets are wrapped around oneself in the hopes of getting the icy chill to leave. The body has another way to warm itself. You lovely wife, that sits beside you. Take her for granted and you will miss the warm body during the chill of winter, of course winter you remain in without her.

Things people take advantage of the small things. A body can drain warmth from another body creating warmth itself. The heat travels in a circle between the two. Just like the heat all things in a relationship should be just as harmonious, just as synchronized.

Even the tear from a woman has a nice warmth to it. A salty taste, and a great warmth in it. A tear should rarely drop from her face, and warmth and brightness should shine from her facial features, but if one must take great effort to be pleased in the warmth shown.

The warmth of the body curled up next to you during winter months, or curled up for warmth to watch some T.V. show. A hug when you get home, a kiss to welcome you home, a walk, a talk, a seductive move. Women are more than just wives, more than just home caretakers, they are much more than what we see them as. They are warm, they are tender, and they are emotional.

Careful what you do treat the woman according the the old teaching lest you have winter alone with only yourself and your blanket. What are the teaching? Teachings from the old sages, teaching that inspired Heart of a Woman article on this site. A woman has an endless warmth that needs appreciated.

For the women out there and on behalf of the guys, We appreciate your warmth.

Snow - **The darker Dao**

Winter approaches. Cold, Long, Dark days ahead. Winter gives a person rest, gives a person sanctuary from the ever present dangers to oneself during times of summer; times of the heart.

Some grand qualities of winter. Snow, a little white flake that melts as it touches you. Upon touch of a snow flake the heat starts to drain out of you, bringing the grasp of a cold chill as cold as death. Beauty as cold as death, as white as the purest linen.

The air is crisp and clutches the life from the lungs, like an icy sword the winter air cuts into the throat and lungs with a piercing sharpness. Seeing breath in the air as you frantically try to muffle the chill of the air.

Roll the snow into a ball, make a snow man, drop into the snow and perform snow angels. Fun in the season of Death, fun in the season of white cold fingers of death. Death walks silently beside you.

But even in summer or spring, does not death walk silently beside a person. People fear the long companion of life, dread it, despise it, find ways to overcome it. Why not welcome it, appreciate it, and even come to terms with it. What can anyone say about life, when none has proven life truly exists in the individual, in consciousness, nor in any aspect that proves this existence in not part or a thought of another existence.

How can one not like snow, the beauty is captivating, the white purity captures the soul. Sleep soundly in the dead of winter, as the cold air provides a good environment for sleep, provided you have a warm blanket. Too cold, provide some heater, but not too hot, still leave a chill in the air and sleep will come naturally and easily. Winter makes sleep easily, however waking up is more difficult.

Enjoy winter, find fun, harmony, and joy in something considered the season of death, the frozen tundra of a person's soul.

The Call

Through out my life I have given without any wants or motives behind it. That is one thing I can say about my life. I have given sagely advice without the intention on helping at no costs, or motives.

I received a call from a friend, who has not found the path yet. His Uncle got drunk and started a fight with him, and since he faught back due to pride, he is now kicked out of the house. He would like to borrow $10.00 for supplies. Of course being a Daoist I said sure. He said the money was going for supplies and he is flooding his resume out.

If that is true then it is a big step for this young person. He is starting down a path, however unlike his friend which came to me for guidance, he has not truly sought out any directly from me.

The only advice I could give was based on the fight. "Sometimes to win an altercation one must sit back and take the punchs." Sometimes you have to roll with the punches as they say. Plus I got another, "When you win, sometimes you loose more than just keeping your pride, sometimes when you loose your pride you win."

Humanity has been drilled with the concept of win or loose, and with pride to such a harmful way. Humanity has become a really harmful society to the world, take religious fanatics on both sides, the politicians and the art of lies as they are, the laws of society, and our own common interaction with people.

It is no wonder I so want to leave this society just like my elders did when they went to Wu Dang Mountain. I want to leave society, go to a secluded place to build that place, grow my food, and live in peace with the world. The world is so much more than just us humans. It is a lovely place, a difficult place, but a rewarding place as well.

A person will lie, cheat, steal, fight, and cause harm to another person with no compassion in their hearts. That is one of the things I miss in humanity, compassion. The will to generally care about all other people first, and self last.

So I truly hope he decides to listen to me, but I will help out as much as I can, not as the sage but as a friend. So until I am asked for the advice I can only support him as a friend. Sagely advice should not be given if the person is not going to hear it. A wasted breath is just as good as a wasted life.