Sunday, January 29, 2017

Day 29: Conversation with Chuang Tzu

What business is there
in being useless,
to plant a tree in the 
middle of nowhere,
so it will not be disturbed,
when surely the tree
serves some purpose
like holding the soil in a flood
that will inundate the village
or provide a shade for the birds,
a home for the squirrels?
Dear Master,
who said the useless is
never disturbed,
perhaps it is better to say
it is futile to wish to be inutile
prepare to be disturbed
for we are all designed
to be of use if not to us
but to others.
Dear Master replied,
”Who said we wish not to be disturbed?
What we wish is to free ourselves
of use so we can
learn from them who use us.
When we cease to be 
what others need of us
we become that 
tree before it grows up.”

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