The world may often feel like it’s cracking open—each headline another fracture, every scroll through social media a tremor that rattles your peace.
It can seem like the sky is falling, like hope is some forgotten relic buried beneath the debris of chaos. But here you are, breathing, standing still in the eye of the storm. And in this moment, there’s a quiet invitation—a whisper from the Tao itself—beckoning you not to cower, but to create.
Because creativity, my friend, is your revolt against despair.
You may not control what erupts outside of you, but you can choose what takes root inside. And from that sacred interior, you can begin again.
That’s what you’re doing now, aren’t you? Reimagining your future—not as a desperate escape, but as a powerful pivot. You are choosing to laser focus your gifts, turning your talents into tuning forks for possibility.
It starts small. One practice. One insight. One decision to turn inward instead of outward.
You pick one thing each day to get better at. Maybe it’s the way you breathe through resistance. Maybe it’s allowing yourself to daydream without guilt. Or it’s daring to sketch out a wild idea on the back of a napkin in a noisy coffee shop.
This is your daily dose of self-mastery. And while the outside world keeps spinning in noise and disruption, you become like the Aikido martial artist —rooted, aware, centered in motion.
Aikido teaches that power does not come from fighting force with force, but from blending with energy, redirecting it, and transmuting it.
When the world’s chaos tries to knock you off your center, you don’t resist. You breathe. You move with it. You pivot. You turn the assault into an opening.
Just like in your own life—you’re learning to take what the world hurls at you and create a form of art from it. An idea. A vision. A blueprint for a new way of being.
This is what your imagination is for. Not to escape reality, but to shape it.
Chin-Ning Chu, the fierce and fearless author of Thick Face, Black Heart, understood this truth long before “self-help” became an industry.
She taught that “Thick Face” is the courage to pursue your path, undeterred by criticism or praise. On the other hand, “Black Heart” is the capacity to protect your purpose, even if it means being misunderstood or standing alone.
You’re drawing on both now. Because you’ve come to realize something powerful: It’s not your job to please others or wait for permission. It’s your job to become a clear vessel for your mission. Even if the world doesn’t applaud it. Even if it doesn’t make sense yet.
You are forging your life from your inner Tao.
While others are panicking, you are practicing presence. When society is crumbling under the weight of its own expectations, you are dissolving your own—choosing, instead, to flow with what is. To plant seeds not in perfect soil, but in soil as it is. And somehow, against all odds, your roots grow deeper.
Your creativity is your resilience.
Each time you commit to imagining again—even after disappointment, after silence, after failure—you are exercising spiritual muscle. You are living into the Taoist truth that true power comes not from clenching, but from releasing. Not from control, but from harmony.
And here’s the paradox: when you stop chasing mastery and instead become the practice, the mastery finds you.
So if today feels like the sky is falling again, let it fall. And look up anyway.
Use that moment to paint the sky with your imagination. Use it to write the next line of your story, sing a song no one else can hear, cook a meal that reminds your soul it’s still home. Use it to imagine a world that hasn’t arrived yet—but might, if you have the courage to keep dreaming.
You don’t need all the answers. You only need one reason to begin.
And so, you do.
You gather your breath, align your energy like the aikido practitioner in stillness before movement, and choose one small, deliberate act of creation. That act may not change the world in a headline-grabbing way, but it will change your world—and that’s enough.
Because when enough of us dare to imagine again, the future becomes not something we fear, but something we co-create.
And you—yes, you—are right where you need to be.
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Well stated! My friends and I are on a creating binge, creating gardens, stories, poems, memoir, paintings, and more.
This was such a cool drink of water. Thank you.