Most of you that have known me for a while may recall a certain crazy Taoist roomate I had some years ago.  I was hard up for cash at the time trying to keep up with buying Huggies and milk for Ezra and he seemed like a nice guy.  He was a self proclaimed "Taoist" and although I am always open to new things, he led me to believe that Taoism was really absurd due to his strange behavior that he blamed on his religion.

 I will not go into too much detail about him, aside from saying that one sunny afternoon after inhaling a dozen margaritas at a near by Mexican restaurant, I came home to him spun out on god knows what telling me that some Native American god was going to "dance on my soul."  I dont know about you, but the last thing I want to come home to after drinking my weight in Margaritas is some crazy Italian Taoist hollering jibberish about my soul!  This, aside from all of the other insanity was not worth even a years supply of free Huggies, so I sent him packing.

For several years now I have seen this curious book "The Tao of Pooh" swimming around, but never had a chance to pick it up. That and the fact that what little I knew about Taoism had been tainted by the Italian roomate.  In my writing class last week, a boy did his final on the book, which I took as a sign that I should finaly read it.  The book compares basic Taoist principles to the life of Winnie the Pooh and although I have always looked at old Winnie as some boring character of the 90's who appears on white trash ladies' jean button up shirts, I have to say I have found a new respect for him and Taoism. I am not saying that I am a Taoist expert now that I have read the book, but I found that it is a way of living that corolates directly to the way that I try to live my everyday life now.  That is, going with the flow and enjoying every second of life and every person that is in it.

Truth is, I haven't always had the best of luck in life, in fact, I have had a lot of bad luck, but I have never been one to let it bring me down.  Lately, I have been going through some things at work that have made me so stressed out that I was physically ill.  I only began to feel better when I decided to be positive and accept things as they are.  

Now,  before I continue getting all touchy feely with this,  I will end by saying that this book is super fast reading and I recommend it to everyone. In reading it, you will find your particular personality in one of the characters and when you do your heart will smile a little bit.  Last, but not least, if you are anything like me this book will make you realize that if you think your life sucks there is someone out there with a life that sucks 72 times worse than your own. Get the point? Stop being upset about your life. Be happy with with who you are, be generous with what you have, learn to accept things rather than trying so hard to change it up and they will work themselves out. 

Finally if you are super adventurous, take the quiz below, I always thought that I was Tigger, but I am mellowing out these last couple of years so maybe I really am a Pooh. (Michael took the quiz and he was Kanga.)

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!