Chapter 26

The root’s stability makes possible
the leaf’s communion with air.
Likewise, serenity is always still there,
at the heart of agitation.
The sage travels lightly,
but his wagons are heavily laden.
He is still, even as he moves
through the beauty and strangeness of the world.
He is unattached and rooted simultaneously,
a leaf moving freely on a stem.
He moves outward into the air,
into a kingdom,
into everything
and yet remains steady within himself.
Without that steadiness, rulership
is ridiculous.

© 2003