Everything is Taken Care Of (Revised)

The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible.
I am different from ordinary people.
I drink from the Great Mother’s Breasts.
(Tao Te Ching)


A baby was breastfed for seven years. When the baby had grown into a big boy, his mother told him to go up to the mountains and see whether he could withstand the mountain storms. He tried his best, but after a few seconds a strong breeze swept him off his feet. He went back to his mom and she breast-fed him for another seven years. As a sturdy teenager, his mother asked him to go up the mountains to test the winds one more time. A storm was howling furiously and he tried his best to keep his balance. He had his legs stamped into the ground but after ten minutes his tired legs gave into the pressure and he fell to the ground yet again.


He returned to his mom and she breast-fed him for yet another seven years. As a strong and handsome young man, he went up to the mountain for the third time and only laughed at the winds. He became a soldier and destroyed entire armies with his strength, sturdiness and apparent invincibility.  We don't have to strive and we don't have to fear. The only thing we spiritual travelers have to do is to let the Way take care of us. When we encounter problems and setbacks like everyone, we can use these obstacles to launch us on an even higher trajectory.


You might ask, how can we have faith in fairy tales? How do we know that good will come our way? How can we stop being anxious? How can we stop question the past, or second-guess the intentions of the people we interact with? Well, that’s what a spiritual path does for us. Our restless mind naturally quiets down when we are in the Holy Now. The present moment simply takes over. How can we know that the future will be to our liking? Well, we can’t promise success in what you do, just like the 14 year-old boy in our story also could not withstand the winds of the mountains, but we can claim with authority that no matter what happens, it will be meaningful and set the foundation for the ending of the story that you are writing for yourself.

John Lennon summed this idea up well when he said, ‘Everything will be ok in the end. If it is not ok, it’s not the end.’ Faith is something that comes with traveling the Way. The boy in the story had his nurturing mother to fall back to; we have the Way. Day in, day out, we receive the Signs along the Way telling us when we are in alignment with what is, just as we get encouragements to try a little harder when something is off. Can we experience missed steps along the Way, misfortunes and disappointed expectations? Absolutely! I had plenty of those. Can we ever have the feeling of being left out there, deserted without Divine support? No! Everything that happens is patiently explained to us, and how this dark chapter fits into the bigger picture of our story. Give yourself a little credit as a Co-Creator in God’s beautiful Story. If it is not ok, it’s not the end!


When it comes to anxiety you might take comfort in Meatloaf’s, ‘Two out of Three Ain’t Bad’. That’s how I feel when it comes to my spiritual progress after ten years of traveling the Way. There is a peace of mind that descends naturally, and most of life’s worrying and second-guessing becomes a thing of the past. Today, when you and I are talking, I am all ears. I see you literally—whether you have an upbeat message for me or not—as a messenger of the Way. Thinking stops when Awareness kicks in. And with it, so does anxiety and negative thinking. In the olden days I also second-guessed events of the past a lot, examining over and over again whether I could have done something differently. Today, this would never occur to me. We just instinctively know that everything in the past, no matter how painful it might have been, prepared us perfectly for this Divine moment.


I use Meatloaf’s ‘Two of Three Ain’t Bad’ song to demonstrate that I am also human like everyone else. Naturally, I want to be in a ‘good’ chapter of my life-story rather than a more challenging chapter . Naturally, I also worry about future outcomes. Still, the belief in a meaningful outcome of my story in the end is unshaken. We are the director, main actor and supporting cast in our movie production. Of course we have a say in how it turns out in the end. Keep the faith and keep going. If you have the humility to ask for help when you need it, the Way will make sure that everything is taken care of.


Everything is being taken care of along the Way. It’s more than faith, it’s an insight. They say that after 21 repetition our powerful subconscious starts accepting what our conscious mind believes as well. Well, along the Way, we get daily supporting Signs that we are on the right track. And if we do miss a beat along the Way, we are instantaneously shown how to reconnect. We just instinctively know that this is our story. I hear often from spiritual newbies that they mind their fears, overactive minds and anxiety, and I always tell them that a spiritual path can help them with that. I can’t promise them success. I can’t promise them the absence of pain, but I can tell them that peace of mind will surely come their Way.

Along the Way, everything is being taken care of.