You were warned....

Healthcare has been in a capitalist tailspin since I have entered it as a nurse in 1976.
Here is the dance with the Devil folks.  You want to be protected from the catastrophic costs of healthcare and they want to make money off of you.  Yup, there is nothing altruistic about healthcare above the level of the MD. They want your money and a lot of it.
The money grab started getting bigger when then codified diagnoses called a DRG or diagnostic related group.  This led to eliminating frivolous expenses but led to coders adding as many possible DRGs to your hospital visit so they could get more reimbursement.
Next came HMOs, the new savior.  These saviors were supposed to swoop in and manage healthcare and reduce healthcare costs.  Were were duped again.  HMOs just became another hand in the pot.
Well here comes Obama care. Any government program that says it is going to save money is a lie right off the bat.  WHo is it going to save money for in the long run?  No one.  We will pay higher premiums, still pay for those who can'or won't have healthcare AND pay for a monster government program to manage Obamacare.
Do we really trust a warmongering police state government who wants to democratize the world for the sake of raping it for monetary purposes and natural resources?  Do we really want to trust the big business interests who control government, at have left our manufacturing shores for cheaper labor elsewhere to manage our budgets and healthcare?
We have a federal government that in $12 Trillion + in debt and is inept at handling its own domestic problems let alone international problems.
The gun debate is a red herring as well.  Guns really do kill people and there are those that kill people out of blood lust, greed, anger, violence etc.  But the real push is to disarm the people.  The government fears an armed populace, a powerful populace because it cannot be controlled by force in the common denominator.
This is simple history replaying itself again.  Don't sit back and have me say I told you so, but unless we control this government by, for and of the people we will perish as a democracy.
This is not conspiracy theory, this is not fear mongering, this is history simply repeating itself and the concomitant karma that comes with action and inaction.
Be wise and prepare.  Arm, gather food and water, find a safe haven and gather your friends, family and neighbors.  Only together as a loving family can we defend ourselves against the demons that are coming over the horizon.

At no time did anyone receive the wisdom of life at birth.  The proverbial book of wisdom presented to you at birth is called your parents.  But like any manual there are ways to improve upon because there are always changes.  For those of us that do not like change we have a very rude awakening.  Those that resist are eventually stripped away and have cataclysmic awakenings being dashed upon the boulders of attitude adjustment or caught in the white water of reorganization.  We all need to wake up and get with the program.  It is much easier to swim in the stream with the direction we are normally flowing towards than any other possibility.

Thus the Tao is called the Watercourse Way.  There are many ways that water flows of course.  Sometimes we are the gentle shower and sometimes we are the palatial glacial shelf that obliterates even mountains in its path.  The steam that can cut steel is needed for the finer work but eventually all water finds its way to the sea.  The primordial sea is where the birth of consciousness and life may have begun and not in the arid, cold abyss of space.

All life is flow.  Water is at times considered trace-less.  It vanished after use.  It cycles to the clouds or joins the greater flow following tributaries to the sea. We need the awareness of mindfulness to remember to be like water; trace-less after its work is done but the apparent works of its passing leaving the wonder of all who view its creation. The subtlety and power of water is beyond awe inspiring.  It is the pillar of life; no water no life on Earth.

Without the Tao, like water there is no life.  Like water the Tao can be used but never used up.  It changes to the trace-less non-conformity that is its nature.  Remember to watch and observe.  At what point am I steam, a glacier, frozen water crystals, snow or even raging flood waters.  All have their time and place.  Wisdom is knowing when to flow.

Desperately seeking what was not Lost

Many of us seek which we already have.  Like a muscle it is something that just need to be exercised and utilized. We read books, practice meditation, attend yoga classes all in a Promethean struggle to grasp, equip and mind our journey to connection. Like insanity we don't realize our "western" mind bent to work for something we already have.  This is similar to looking for the car keys we are absent mindedly holding in our hand.
In my office I have above me a painting to remind me of the simple path to enlightenment.  It is a painting with 3 characters from my journey.  The Chinese characters are are the symbol for a man on a path which of course is the symbolic representation of Taoism.  Next is the Chinese Character for, "Everything is emptiness and emptiness is everything.  Circling the character for Taoism is the famous circle of infinity as drawn by Enso.
We all walk the path whether we know it or not.  Some with a spring in their step and smile on their face.  Yet others with a frown as they labor under a self imposed yoke.  Our minds have played us far too long and we have tired of the game.  Instead we pull back to the great "within" where we find nothing and everything.  The path to enlightenment lies within and not without.  There is infinity, there is our path and then there is our answer.  Most of us took a long time to realize, as the Bible says, "We are co-creators with God".  Why have we not believed?  Because we were too busy searching for answers outside that we dared not believe the answer was actually within us. Little did we realize that The Gospel of St. Thomas was right.
In the dark, quiet void lies the answer.  We created alright, our views, opinions, thoughts of what we knew to be true only to have a crisis or revelation rip the rug from under our feet.
So many words do not replace the simple solution.  Sit in the quiet and breathe. Your life will be taken away but it will be replaced with endless possibilities.
Here are a few tools to start before formal mediation is begun....
A start  www.themeditationpodcast.com
another...www.meditationoasis.com
After you have tested these begin what Zen practitioners begin with; breathing counting for 1 year. The beginning is the end of everything and that everything is emptiness.