Welcome to the Big Tree Blog
The Butterfly is the end of the story, or maybe it is the beginning? A few months ago, I noticed six or seven hungry monarch caterpillars finishing off the last leaves on a tall stalk of milkweed. I panicked, how will they survive? I transported the caterpillars to other milkweed plants with plenty of…
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Earth provides the form, Water takes Her shape, The silent Sky ever present.
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Wind moves the trees from the outside, Wind move us from the inside, None are in control, All are being moved, By the Mysterious. Merging with the motion Of the Nameless This is the “pathless path”.
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What if the body you occupied was a place of peace? What if all you had to be responsible for was maintaining peace, harmony, kindness, generosity, happiness and compassion within the walls of your skin and skull? A boundary made up of just a couple of feet depending on your size. Within the space of…
Read MoreWestern science seems to be catching up with ancient wisdom. The Tao Te Ching was written over 2,500 years ago in China. It is small book of 81 poetic verses offering us a way to live in harmony and peace within ourselves and our world. Traditional cultures everywhere have highly developed theories of the origins…
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We make choices everyday. If you have ever tried to change a habit or begin a new habit, you know how hard change can be. Change demands us to make different choices. Even though we want something new and different, we witness ourselves not making the new choice. What’s up with that? Some things that…
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Pain is not a necessary ingredient to growth. We can gain from the pain we find ourselves in. How? By paying attention to our reactions. An example: Last year I felt a familiar twinge in my shoulder as I worked. I ignored it. Another twinge and I react with anger at the weakness in…
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Internal awareness takes effort. It is a strange kind of effort. It does not require muscular strength and endurance. Awareness requires persistent attempts to quiet the mind, to “shush” the internal chatter, to let go of trying so hard to mentally attend to external responsibilities. It seems as if an invisible chat button is flipped…
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“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” – Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching Is your name actually who you are? Who are you without your name? Wondering about this is the inner path. Turning inward, towards our own personal mystery leads back to the Mysterious Source of Everything, sometimes called the…
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Just like a cup of coffee, the form sustains the formless.
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