“When you know and respect your own Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.”
Benjamin Hoff
Every couple of years I reread The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. I picked it up again this week. I first read it in a Humanities class in high school and Hoff’s writing teaching Taoism through Winnie the Pooh feels like coming home.
That quote is one I had underlined from a previous reread. It’s part of the lesson that Things Are As They Are. And so am I. Sometimes we get clouded from that inner knowing (that Inner Nature), but when we can see the world for what it is and ourselves for who we are, there is less struggle and more being.
I want to quote this passage from the writings of Chuang-tse that I adore. In response to another complaining about a tree that no carpenter could cut into lumber and therefore it was useless and without value, Chaung-tse replied:
“You complain that your tree is not valuable as lumber. But you could make use of the shade it provides, rest under its sheltering branches, and stroll beneath it, admiring its character and appearance. Since it would not be endangered by an axe, what could threaten its existence? It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do not use it in its proper way.”
It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else . . .
I sit with that. I love that. Things Are As They Are. And so are you. And so am I. There is so much beauty when we live our truth.
With Love,
Natalie