Today is the first real day of snowfall for West Michigan. Lake Michigan is punching us with snowy fiery. Okay, the lake isn’t a conscious being that is purposefully attacking, in non-action and what it is, it strikes. I live within 40 miles of the lake which is a perfect area to be buried by “lake effect snow”. This happens when cold air blows over the warm water of Lake Michigan. As the lake warms the air,evaporation allows moisture to drift into the sky. As it rises the air becomes cooler dropping below freezing. The air can no longer hold the moisture, it comes back to earth in the form of snow; lots of snow.
I was looking for the parable about the pine and willow covered in snow and came across a Taoism site that had it. For the sake of not reinventing the wheel, this comes from
Taoisminfo.com:
Being covered with snow, the pine falls down as it is rigid and resisting, whereas the willow, being pliant, bends to the ground and this way, the snow falls down from it.
But nondoing is not pure absence or refrain from interfering with things, it us also a way of acting in accord with the very course of the things. In other words, we have here what was called the line of minimal resistance.
3 comments:
I see this phenomena quite frequently here on the SW Washington coast. Of course, for us, it involves rain, not snow.
Gales and hurricane-like storms roll in frequently from late autumn - early spring. The trees that stand up resolute are often the ones that get blown down. The trees which possess the greatest flexibility bend with the wind and live to see another day.
"Trees do bend, though straight and tall. So must we to others' call."
I reckon there is a time to be a pine, a time to be an oak, and a time to be a willow.
That is a great point, Fay. It is through experience and knowledge that one knows when to be which. If one lacks both, then experimenting will start one on the path to know.
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