Hi Everyone👋 Here we are; we have arrived at our final day, Day 10: The Useless Tree (A Different One) Zhuangzi is famous for the story of the useless tree that survives because no carpenter wants it. But the same text has another tree story that's less quoted and, I think, more beautiful. A man named Nanbo Zigi is walking in the mountains when he sees a huge, ancient tree. Its branches are gnarled and twisted. Its trunk is hollow. It's no good for timber. But it's magnificent, vast, old, and completely at ease in its own strange shape. Nanbo Zigi says to his companion, "This tree has learned to be itself. It doesn't try to be straight. It doesn't try to be useful. It has grown into exactly the shape its life has given it, and it has survived because of it." Then he adds something that has remained with me for many years.... "The tree is not trying to be a tree. It is simply being what it is." This is the end of the whole journey, in a way. Not self-improvement. Not becoming someone better. Just growing into the shape your life is actually taking, without apology, without forcing, without comparing yourself to the straight trees that got cut down for lumber. You are not a problem to be solved. You are a life to be lived. In your own shape. At your own pace. In your own strange, gnarled, magnificent way. So today... look at one thing about yourself that doesn't fit the world's idea of useful, straight, or correct. Don't try to fix it. Just let it be part of the tree. Ten days. Ten stories from the edges of the old traditions. None of them is a formula. All of them are an invitation. With Love ❤️ Always Mark

Hi Everyone.....Sorry, but today's live call is cancelled due to the storm and an intermittent internet connection due to high winds

Day 4 of A week of small things. Nothing heavy. No homework. Just a bit of light for anyone who needs it. Gratitude, Without the Nonsense A word about gratitude, because it gets a bad reputation and sometimes deserves it. Toxic positivity says: be grateful, so you don't have to look at what's wrong. That's not gratitude. That's denial in a nice outfit. Real gratitude holds both. You can be deeply grateful for your dinner and furious about the state of things. Both true. Nothing has to cancel anything out. The trick is being specific. Not "I'm grateful for my life" that's too big, and the mind will argue with you. Small and concrete. That phone call. The boiler still working. The person who let you go first at the till. Today: three things you're grateful for. Be specific. Let yourself feel each one for a moment before moving on. With Love ❤️ Always Mark

Hi Everyone, please help me give a warm welcome to @Melanie Deanne to our lovely community 🙏