Igniting a Wildfire of Playful Flow
… aka the Intentional Art of Random Co-Creation
I am a constant work-in-progress, but not the kind you hear trumpeting his updates from a rooftop or posting every step along the way.
My progress is slow, silent, mostly invisible to others, and often invisible even to myself until I turn around and see how far I have wandered from who I used to be.
I do not chase greatness. I do not announce my wins on Substack Notes.
Instead, I stay rooted in something I call random co-creation—an intimate, playful exchange with the world where I offer small gestures, flashes of creativity, a smile here, a written word there, and trust that something good, something unknowable, will ripple outward. I toss seeds without needing to see the trees grow.
Yup. Life for me is less about building monuments and more about watering the soil. This way of living wasn’t taught to me. I stumbled into it after chasing too many mirages of “arrival.” In the places I thought would crown me victorious—titles, relationships, recognition—I often found only emptiness. The arrival was a mirage; the road was the real gift all along.
And so, I returned home.
Not to a physical place.
But to the Tao—the great playful flow that Lao Tzu whispers of in the Tao Te Ching, especially in Chapter 34:
“The great Tao flows everywhere.
All things are born from it, yet it doesn’t create them.
It pours itself into its work, yet it makes no claim.
It nourishes infinite worlds yet does not demand obedience.
It has no desires. It may be called small.
All things return to it, yet it does not control them.
It may be called great.”
When I live through random co-creation, I live like the Tao—flowing freely, touching, nourishing, offering, but never clinging or controlling. I meet strangers. I make art no one will ever see. I laugh at jokes that no one else hears. I build and break, start and stop, not for applause, not even for completion, but for the simple joy of dancing with life itself.
I see this not as an abdication of self but the purest expression of it.
For at the heart of all real progress is the Delphic Oracle’s old edict: Know Thyself. But knowing yourself is not a sterile gathering of facts, not a resume, not a branding exercise. Knowing yourself means touching that silent river inside—the Tao that flows through you, through all things, without ever boasting about its power.
The deeper I know myself, the less I need to talk about myself.
The more I become immersed in the playful mystery of living, the less I care about making an impression.
The Tao makes no impression—it simply nourishes, and because it does so silently, it is infinite.
Random co-creation is not a strategy. It is a way of falling back in love with existence without needing it to love you back.
And strangely, this silent way often draws to me the most beautiful collaborations, the most unexpected opportunities, the richest friendships—because when you stop clutching at the world, it comes closer. When you stop trying to matter, you suddenly do.
I don’t always get it right.
Sometimes the old ambition flares up—loud, bright, hot—and I find myself wanting to be seen, to be certified, to be guaranteed.
But then I breathe, smile inwardly, and remember:
Return. Return to the playful home. Return to the Tao.
I do not need to arrive.
I am here already.
I am a quiet nomad, wandering through this ever-changing dreamscape, offering my random handfuls of color to the canvas, asking nothing in return.
Maybe that is greatness.
Maybe it is something better than greatness.
Maybe it is simply life, lived fully and quietly enough to touch the marrow of being.
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Diamond Michael Scott
aka The Chocolate Taoist
Adding to it I extend the Oracle's words to Love Thyself. The two together will get you through the day for there is no love like loving oneself, respecting oneself and caring for oneself.
Not to be thought a crass materialist, but I have been thinking about budgets. Every businessman knows that his goal is to make things that others need or simply want. He is not a creator of those things or services, he is a shepherd. In order to make milk, cheese, and wool available to others, his job is to tend, care for, feed, and protect sheep. It costs to do that, and in order to do his job efficiently so that he can provide the products and profit from doing so, he has to budget his time and expenses so his prices will be less than his competitors'. So, his budgets are his way of disciplining himself to reach his goal.
To use budgets as goal in themselves tends to minimize quality, to risk the wellbeing of his sheep and himself for short term gain. The long term business interests are to ensure that his physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing and those of his sheep are preserved and maximized so that his customers needs are satisfied as long as possible. Cost cutting is as much of a threat to his business as profligacy.
In your case, your product is wisdom. Gaining wisdom always comes at the costs of time and energy. For as long as you profit from the wisdom you gain you will have it to share with others. The danger to your 'business' is that wisdom can be seen as painful. You must see wisdom as joyful and a net benefit benefit, else you abandon will its pursuit. Solomon expressed the benefit in Proverbs and the pain in Ecclesiastes. That is why many more sermons are from Proverbs and very few from Ecclesiastes. Each is equally true, but not popular.
"Let the wise listen and add to their learning" brightens your day, but "there is nothing new under the sun" brings gloom. More chocolate is sold than bitter apricot seeds, though the latter contains vitamin B17, which kills cancer.