The Tao of How

The future we are creating for our children seems to be a bleak one. We are so disconnected, even though social media has made it so easy for us to keep tabs on one another.   I wonder whether we are raising our children the right way - to be good people or to simply be functional adults that keep the machine moving.   Children are so perfect and innocent. The experiences we provide to children shape the adults they will become. I see so many children mistreated, not given the opportunities they should be given, and essentially set up for failure from day 1. From some of these situations children persist to become amazing adults, but should it be such a difficult journey for them?   Should there be so much adversity? In contrast, we have children who are given everything from the very beginning. Children who grow up to be entitled and self important. Selfish, and uncaring about their fellow man. You need to understand what you don't have in order to appr

I have an addictive personality. This has been the case for as long as I can remember.   I suppose if I think back far enough, it started with guitar playing.   It was empowering to be able to pick up an instrument and make noise. And in some cases noise that I felt confident enough to share with others.   But I always wanted more effects for my guitar and a bigger amp. And a better guitar. And another guitar.   And more equipment.   I was (and still am), to utilize a phrase common among musicians, a Gear Whore.   When I started entertaining the idea of flight cases to better protect items in storage, it never really occurred to me at the time that I was basically spending more money to put the things away and never use them. To simply collect them.   To what end? One particular guitar seems to have become the focal point of my process of working through minimizing. To my knowledge it is the only guitar that I was ever given as a gift. Every other guitar

Think back to the best year of your life at whatever point you are at now. You might be 15 years old you might be 50 years old, but think about one year that stands out from the others. One year that would be the best. What makes that year the best year? Is it the experiences, or is it the materials that we accumulate during the course of the year?   Is it the year you got married? The year your first child was born? The year you graduated from college? Or was that the year you bought that furniture.   For that new television.   Or maybe it was the year you bought that great new vacuum cleaner. The point is, it isn't the materials that we accumulate during the course of the year but make it a good year. It is the experiences that we can look back to. I can look around my house and honestly say that I can't remember what specific year I got many of the things that I've surrounded myself with. But I can certainly remember the years of the experiences.

I was riding my motorcycle home yesterday and was thinking about goals.   Specifically, I was thinking about what I'm working towards long-term. What I aspire to do at the end of all of this. Is my career a means to an end or is it who I am? I've seen numerous cases of careers taking over individuals' lives and taking their individuality away. I don't want that to happen with me but at the same time I don't have a clear sight of what the long-term goals are. I know what I would like to do later in life once the kids are grown and out of school, but as far as timelines for specific concrete plans, there really are none.   These thoughts let me to the question that I've been pondering for some time now.   What am I working towards? What is this all for? How am I living my life as a means to reaching aa specific goal or goals?   At the same time I've been doing a good deal of reading about the concept of minimalism. About the idea th