Like all deaths, there was loss, but also new life
(My name is Jen, and I write rather vulnerable and personal stories based on my lived experience, in the hopes that others will also find community, love and peace. Follow me or share your thoughts in the comments.)
I’ve been studying the Tao Te Ching for several years now, in a personalised daily study of a single hexagram from the I Ching. Over the years, the gentle and natural teachings of this ancient philosophy have begun to permeate my thinking and rewire my Western and Mormon patterns.
One of the metaphors I love the most is the idea of the uncarved block. That we, each of us, are an uncarved block of wood when we enter this life, and it is through living life and all its experiences that we allow the extraneous to be whittled away, until all that is left is the truth of us.
As each of us have different bodies, genetics, and life experiences, the truth of each of us will be different. This models nature in the abundance of plant and animal life, the incredible diversity we see around us, and how each fits into the overall sphere of the whole: predators and prey, flowers and insects, man and nature.
So it stands to reason that each of us will become a different shape, as life continues to carve away all that is…
