MN Trip

Matt took me to his hometown of Litchfield, MN this weekend. I met his parents. Celebrated his brother's 40th birthday. Saw the homes in which he grew up and his old stomping grounds. It's a sweet, peaceful little place at the foothills of the northwoods. I adored all of it--his family, the town, the time. And no stop in that area would be complete without checking out the world's largest ball of twine...

 Check out all of that snow!

 With the lovely Miss Ella Knott.

The drive home was white knuckle, windy, and blurred. But we got out just in time and missed the worst of it. Plus, this was my view.

While unwinding from the trip last night I picked up the Tao Teh Ching and highlighted these lines:

"Is it not because he is selfless that his Self is realized?"

"When you are lacking in faith, others will be unfaithful to you."

"The world is a sacred vessel, which must not be tampered with or grabbed after. To tamper with it is to spoil it, and to grasp it is to lose it. In fact, for all things there is a time for going ahead, and a time for following behind ... A time to be up and a time to be down."

"How do I know the ways of all things at the Beginning? By what is within me."

And my favorite from my reading: "Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub; it is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges. We make a vessel from a lump of clay; it is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful. We make doors and windows for a room; but it is these empty spaces that make the room livable. Thus, while the tangible has advantages, it is the intangible that makes it useful." This passage struck me, having just come back from seeing Matt's hometown--all those solid, tangible things that made up his childhood history. There was a beauty to them because they were part of his history. And as for matters of the heart--all those intangible feelings that are rooted there and that define and birth our words and actions--it is the love in our heart that makes the world around us meaningful.