7 Comments
User's avatar
Yuxuan Francis Liu's avatar

Insightful and humorous. I love your perspective on contentment, which teaches me to focus within and be aware.

"True seeing is accepting things as they are, not as we can compare and categorize them, as the categorizing process inherently includes assessments and valuations." There is just so much life wisdom in this statement!

Expand full comment
Steve Henneberry's avatar

As I mentioned, I am no Taoist scholar, so I greatly appreciate the feedback of someone who is. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Paolo Peralta's avatar

Happy to be here! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ the dao is as old as time; I tune in to its mystery and the day is ok🥦

Expand full comment
Donna McArthur's avatar

I love that you have your dog-eared copy of the Tao Te Ching and the receipt that shows the exact day you got it! Books like that are our wealth, as is the shelf full of the yet-to-be-read treasures. Mine seem to cover almost every surface in my house.

I appreciate your reminder of the subjectivity of our innate categorization of everything and that it's only in the moment we can catch ourselves doing it and allow for space for it all to be as it is.

Thank you so much for the quote and mention in your excellent essay, I am deeply honored to be included in it.

Expand full comment
Steve Henneberry's avatar

Thank you for being part of the motivation behind the piece.

Regarding the book, most of my books from that period had a receipt for a bookmark. It just made sense. Sadly, most of my pre-1998 books did not make the trip with me to Japan, but I was able to rescue a few on return trips to the USA over the years.

Expand full comment
Donna McArthur's avatar

I never kept receipts but have always written the year of purchase, along with my name, inside the front cover.

Expand full comment
Steve Henneberry's avatar

That has been my strategy in the Amazon era.

Expand full comment