Faithful Doubter

Reading:

72.1 When the people are not awed by authority,
       then great authority is attained.
72.2 Their homes are not small to them,
       their livelihood not tiresome.
       Just because they do not tire of it,
       it is not tiresome to them.
72.3 Therefore sages know themselves
       but do not see themselves.
       They take care of themselves
       but do not exalt themselves.
       So they take one and leave the other

Tao Teh Ching - Cleary Translation

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Presents

I give you emptiness
I give you plenitude,
unwrap them carefully –
One’s as fragile as the other –
and when you thank me
I’ll pretend to notice the doubt in your voice
when you say they’re just what you wanted.

Put them on the table by your bed.
When you wake in the morning
they’ll have gone through the door of sleep
into your head. Wherever you go
they’ll go with you and
wherever you are you’ll wonder,
smiling about the fullness
you can’t add to and the emptiness
that you can fill.

--Norman MacCaig.
T.

“I think that maybe
I will be a little surer
of being a little nearer.
That’s all. Eternity
is in the understanding
that that little is more than enough.”

Anecdotal Evidence: R.S. Thomas: `More Than Enough'