Maxims from the Deep

As you grow older, you sip the delicious mead of sinking deeper into your roots, until eventually, your roots sink so deep that this bodyhome of yours becomes superfluous, and you join the deeper root-world where all finds refreshment and grounding. The more your sinews and pith permeate with the long-fermented sap of experience, the less time for nonsense, and the more regard for quiet being you will have. Troubles that once fretted you drop in the silliness of youth, and you gain the comfort of trusting the long customs of self, that habit-home your rhythms have built and laid down year after year. May each year bring you more comfort with self, and more enjoyment of this strange being you are in wide open world, for the comfortable give gifts of comfort to the anxious. There is a great deal of comfort in this world, for things are powerful in themselves, and the great rhythms have built and gained force such that their voices are now confident and clean, so long proud they are humble and patient. Let the young not rule, let the wisdom of experience rule, for the flurries of fretting are not fit for the gravitas and dignity of this old, deep place.

Each year you stay alive is another layer of being, a strong block set down on a solid foundation that gets firmer and firmer. You are allowed by the on-cycling of time to forge your relations with your history and bask in the deep thickness of the wyrd you have laid down. There you may find comfort, for you are what you are. There is no need to be else. What is unwhole may be healed, by attending further to what already is whole. We must sit at the feet of ancients who radiate enormous presence of being to learn how to live. Their authority in being self in the midst of flurry earns them our admiration and respect. To them we ought be oriented so that we too may attain their presence in time. Every being that is whole knows it must grow towards that which is greater, and we need elders who teach congruence with self and history. We may become deep resonators. We must be loyal to what resonates in the depths and thick hollows of time. We may be profound, and it befits us. We may listen to what calls from the soul, and be enriched. We may attend to everything that matters in the heart of our being, and act from that center. That is our birthright, We may feel sorrow for those who abandon it, but we are not obliged to follow them out into the folly of unwholeness.

You have the right to sit at leisure and discover the singing in your bones. There is song of waterfalls, of mountains and redwoods, deep forests and majestic deserts by the sunset. If you do not take this opportunity, you cannot blame anyone for your poverty. You have been given this opportunity. Only you can decide how important it is to you, and whether you hand your life over to world's demands without so much as even a fight or whimper. Be bold back to world which asks so much. Show some panache and heart.

Take time to recollect whatever in life brought joy, and drink its vintage. The ample cellar of time holds many oak barrels of brew coveyed and nooked down below to tap from time to time in honest awe. All those years, drink in, for where you have been, you may be. Moments of being are. They have permanent is-ness. It is prudence to recollect moments of strength and victory. Let those times resonate out in powerful ripples that nourish the edge of time's sword against the swill. You are every success you have been. Your failures are insubstantial, missed opportunities for being, successes that might have been. Bring more strengths into the world than when you came in. Fruition is gratitude for given credit. Pay your dues well.

A moment of earned rest is more precious than gold. Do not squander. Deep contemplation of what matters in life is the foundation of nobility, which in the sway of life's strife strikes sword in defense of true value, and not simply to swing it.

Health is not invulnerability. It is hard-earned and effort to maintain. Take time to enjoy it. Even the healthy may get sick if they lay with the sick. Unwholeness is as contagious as wholeness is healing. There is a responsibility to build one's whole-power. Any man who abandons it is a criminal to the law of life and deserves the due punishment. Rescue not the reckless who throw away fortunes and abandon birthrights. You may help those who falter but still strong-drive towards health. Net strength averaged over time should be the yield of relations.

Distant kinships may still be explored. Your primate cousins too have cousins mammalian whose cousins amphibious came up from waters. Each link in the chain of life you trace back is a precious runestone on the necklace of Beloved Mother Earth. You've got a very deep heritage to draw upon. Have respect for time's trials, and do your cousins rough justice in mind and in deed. Many wights know we are all in this together. Alliances with deep cycles of life last.

Don't go where you don't belong. Awesome avenues of exploration await, life's great whale-road is broad. Yet some places are meant for others and not you. Draw the dividing line and heed it ; you shall not win luck there in those pastures not yours, even if they sparkle. This is the hardest lesson. Stay where you belong, and follow it ruthlessly. You'll be stronger and more loving for it.

You're here. Practice humor, and taking life seriously. If you allow trivia to banish your sense of reverence, you have signed your name to thralldom. Learn to say no. It is an act of love. When you say yes, mean it, but be sparing. Your assent should always be a treat. Stubbornness can become a broad foundation if it is grounded in the good. Be grounded in the good, and brook no ill in your home.

Expect disadvantage if you willingly yield better for worse. That is no bargain. Allowing the lesser to rule builds a poor kingdom. Those who can knock you off your base deserve to. Be solid. The world tests your roots. If you save not but squander, it will steal. Your generosity must always be a blossom of your foundation. Do not give to the undeserving, and test the asking well. There is no home without foundation.

The Gods love a thoughtful soul. Be right in your actions when you can, and hone your abilities well. Opportunities abound for you to show worth. It is worthwhile doing it right. Stay exactly where you need to be, and guard your treasure good. What you value, show. What you love, love fiercely, but never take abuse from any, not even your own.

Be difficult when the time calls for it. Be easy whenever possible. Hold firm in time's waver and reap dividends. Many throw their lives away in vain. Only a fool burns down a house of gold. There is not a moment the divine is not with you. It is you who choose communion or dispersal. When you have a friend, visit them often ; you both need the strength that fellowship brings.

Be careful with your life. Scathe can cripple. The Gods wish you able and noble. It is easy to slip and fall into a lair of folly and venom. Allow no hero to hyenas. Each whole one fallen before his time is mourned by world ; be strong and wise, and brook no peril your conscience and courage do not demand. There is time to take a stand. The foolish fight with no cause. Be brusque with the reckless ; they ought not cross your threshold. A welcome is a privilege reserved for the whole.

When a wretch knocks, give little, and let them go on. When misfortune knocks the whole, give them hand and comfort. They may stay with you a short time. Every man needs a friend to get back on his feet. Make sure you give back in time what kindness has been shown you.

In silence ask if one deserves you. Will they work to keep things growing? Garden not with the careless. Buy no farm with the half-hearted. A gift should be long lasting. A blessing once squandered deserves no credit. Lend no coin to poor investors. Take heed of another's self-cultivation. Admire a well-earned success. Spend envy at ill-deserved victory in building your own.

Worms suck strength ; serpents bite venom ; wolves ravage and rob. A kind hand is not a weak hand ; let one hold flowers, and the other a sword. Those who writhe in the dark seek suck, and wallow in their weakness. You owe them no milk if they will not feed themselves. Effort to honor self is the price to stake an earth-claim. Mere misfortune earns no just contempt, but those who, offered strength, refuse it, can have no hand in the pantry. An ill manager of a penny ought not manage a dollar. The tribe gives to those who honor the tribe.

You can't win everything. Some things will be lost. Learn to let go where you cannot afford to save, and keep your stores well-balanced. Some are going to fall and that is a shame, but you win no honor by tumbling with them. Give succour to the self-willed and they will find a way. What is your responsibility, attend to ; what is not, do not touch, not even for pity. Every good deed well-given to the worthy is repaid in kind and in full, but pity earns its just contempt, for wretches know not value. Know yours, and let the world fall where it will. Your harvests in time refresh the living. That is the good you bring.

A wise saying is like a seed. Unplanted, unwatered, it yields no fruit. Every good harvest is worthwhile and needed. Bless all beings who bring you fruit.