Six Words

Six Words

Although there are

many good words

and many words

that can heal

there are six words

that I'm especially happy

to know in life.

Six words

that, if lived by well,

connect us together

and can heal us all.

First is the Chinese word, 'Tao.'

It means a great deal

when you understand it.

Imagine everything that exists,

both alive and inanimate.

Think of everything all this does.

Imagine the reasons why everything

that exists do all that they do.

All of that, all together, all at once

is what Tao is.

Think of everything anything ever does

as notes in a grand song

that an orchestra is playing.

Tao is the orchestra and the song

all together, all at once.

Tao is the idea that the entire Universe

is one single system-in-action.

It means that we each and all

are separate things

that together make One thing.

It is what gives all existence

pattern and order

and it is the music

to which in life we all dance.

Tao is all of us in an orchestra

playing a grand symphony

while dancing along.

Good to know

that Tao doesn't dictate actions

but allows all the different

kinds of music everyone wants to play.

Tao is all that we understand

and all that dwells

beyond our understanding.

It is the fly on the table,

your son texting his friends,

your Aunt Harriet sewing a scarf,

Elephants on the savannah,

and all the fish in the sea.

Tao is all of us dancing

to a melody never set to paper.

Tao is all the things we do in life.

Tao is you and me.

Next is the Hindi word 'Namaste.'

It means 'I honor and see

the place in you where

dwells love and the divine,

and I honor that same place in me,

thereby together we are One.'

I like this word very much

because if you say it

with your heart and soul

it reminds you that

we all are brothers and sisters---

Children of the same Mother Nature.

Everything that lives

are equals by virtue

of the sparks of life

within us all.

Next is a phrase

spoken by the Lakota people

of North America.

'Mitakuye oyasin' means

'All my relations' and

calls to mind not just

your human brothers and sisters

but your relations to

everything that exists

in the entire Universe.

It means that all Nature

is interconnected

and we each are small parts

of something vast and magical.

Something that is wonderful

and full of mystery.

Next are two more words

from the Chinese language.

Yin and Yang call to mind

not the good and the bad,

but that which is passive

and that which is active in life.

Yin is passive and supple

like liquid water.

Yang is active and assertive

like the same water in the form

of a thunder storm.

Yin Yang means that all the world

evolves in cycles, the active

first rising then giving way

to the passive only to rise

and give way again and again.

Yin and Yang are not opposites.

Like two sides of a great mountain

one side quiet in the shade,

the other shined upon

by the bright sun,

each side is complementary

to the other and within in each

is the seed of its counterpart.

Neither one is better than the other

and different parts of the world

gravitate naturally to one or the other.

Though both appear in all the world

in equal proportion, it is said

that Nature favors the Yin.

Yin and Yang remind us all

that the sum of our lives

is not a battle

in the middle of fighting

but a continuous process

that is constantly evolving.

Different words are favored

by different people.

These words are the ones

that mean the most to me.

I favor them, or perhaps,

they favor me.

Six words gathered

from the cultures of Humanity.

Six words to connect us each.

Six words to bind

all life together as One.

Six words to guide and nurture.

Six words to live

and love and learn.

Dewey Dirks