Row, Row, Row Your Boat

______________10______________

Can you coax your mind from its wandering

and keep to the original oneness?

Can you let your body become

supple as a newborn child's?

Can you cleanse your inner vision

until you see nothing but light?

Can you love people and lead them 

without imposing your will?

Can you deal with the most vital matters

by letting events take their course?

Can you step back from your own mind

and thus understand all things? 

Giving birth and nourishing,

having without possessing,

acting with no expectations,

leading and not trying to control:

this is the supreme virtue.

Verse 10, Tao Te Ching

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Recently I got a job (yay!) and I've noticed an interesting trend among young adults my age who work. They seem to be more .... hmmm what's the word ... Centered. 

Centered, adj. : self-confident, goal-oriented, and well-balanced. 

(TheFreeDictionary.com) 

At 19-years-old, I'm supposed to have my whole life figured out, right? Wrongg. Quite the opposite, it seems things only get more confusing after graduation. We have all of these free choices we didn't have before ... where to live, who to spend our time with, what kind of work we want to do ... It's amazing. A completely structurized life dictated by the education system and parents disintegrates into an ebb & flow created by the choices we make.

Personally, I love this freedom. Living on my own for a year was the best feeling ever because I got to be completely independent and do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Yet what puts the solo rich kid at odds with the hardworking middle class student when starting out on this limbo period? 

Well for one thing, there's a smaller margin of error. For example, if Todd McRich loses his phone & wallet on some wild and crazy night out, he can easily replace them with a few phone calls. The loss of $50? A drop in the bucket.

Karen McMiddle however, different story.  Say she loses her wallet which holds $50 and her driver's liscense: Karen has lost her gas money for the week (gonna get a workout on dat bike yo) & now has to come up with $30 she doesn't have to replace her driver's liscense. But hey, she doesn't need to do that anytime soon because she can't afford to drive her car anyways. So yeah. 

The same situation, two completely different scenarios. People who work appreciate the little things a lot more, and don't need tons of money to be happy. It's like, a hard-working young student knows he or she is on the path to success .. so they're not really concerned with what everyone else is doing. 

I'm rowing my own boat, at my own speed. You feel me?

Xx Hugs & Lovin' xX 

       Anna