Closing the Circle

A friend said to me 'Why don't you guys get a life coach?' when I told her that my wife and I were really buried these days by the demands from work, home and parenthood. I had to laugh because that weekend I had contemplated how to design the business cards displaying my next career as a spiritual writer. Should it be Author, Life Coach or Author, Spiritual Coach instead? Well, it is very simple really. A life coach helps you to accomplish what you want to get out of life, while a spiritual coach helps you on your journey home.

Actually, a Tao traveler would point out that the expression 'life coach' is an oxymoron for everyone who has the desire to come home: life coaches you already, all a Tao master would tell you is to keep your eyes wide open, listen to everyone and keep an open mind about everything, and stand ready to be coached moment by moment.

So if you still have a mission, have something to accomplish, you have to be ready to battle with life. Getting a life coach might be a good idea to get a little further ahead or to avoid some pain in the process. Having both feet in life is spiritual too; there is only one way to overcome desires and that is by outgrowing them. You can't yet close the circle just because you still have to make it bigger. Perhaps the job of the spiritual coach could be to help with that soul searching process. There are spiritual seekers who after a long period of drifting realize that they still have a job to do in the real life just as there are driven people who suddenly realize that they have outgrown their desires and happily start the journey home. Otherwise I don't think a spiritual coach has to do much, at least not if she is a Taoist like me. We strongly believe that there is not a better spiritual coach than life itself. Observe the signs that come your way and close the circle for once and for all.