Articles by Mike Williams

Cloudlike

My Take On Some Taoism

Q: So, what do I want to have accomplished by this time next year?
A: I want to be more like a cloud.
Q: WTF?
Yah, that. I was in a situation a few days ago. I was expected to be in a certain place at a certain time. I left home an hour early to leave plenty of time for a 20 minute chore at the pharmacy. Sadly, that little chore took way too much time. I did eventually get back on the road. Sadly (or happily), I realized I had forgotton something important at home.
- So I made a U turn. While driving home, I realized that time was getting close.
- So I made a U turn. While driving to my destination, I realized that I had also forgotten something critically important.
- So I made a U turn.

They say that when in a foxhole, everyone turns to prayer. I'm pretty convinced that is true.
I prayed. This was one of those foxhole situations (well, sorta).

After driving a short time, I saw a Hawk. She was flying just high enough to be unaffected by traffic scurring along on the surface of this planet with our tires well rooted in the "rat race."
She wasn't flying very high and I had the best Hawk observation experience of my life.
It occurred to me that Eagle flys much higher and thus further above the rat race than Hawk does. Then I realized that Cloud is even higher yet. All of these are potentially great observers of my scurrying. All of these are wonderful creations of nature, and probably more collected that I was at the moment.

While all of these are beautiful creations, Cloud is the focus of my attention at the moment (besides my driving). Cloud is amazing! In the nature of things, it has a job to do and she does it perfectly. Sometimes leaving Sky as a perfect blank canvas. Sometimes bringing shade, sometimes bringing rain, and sometimes bringing calming beauty and peace.
One can fire a cannon at Cloud and it does not even care. Cloud continues performing its job without distraction by outside influences, those influences that may keep it from succeeding.

This is what I want to emulate by this time next year.