The Boy's Li

The Boy’s Li 

Li from Lion and Taoist Li 

from living long haired 

openhearted for the world 

a little curl in the neck 

a spontaneous wildlife-swirl  

A life force that sweats itself away 

from under the blanket 

into the room with no roof 

Li stretching into the branches 

into trees, dreams of the woods 

What he sees when he first looks 

is what he cuts out, is what he 

calls to life with that one yell, LI. 

Last week I shared a picture with a quote on Facebook. On the picture is a long haired boy, looking pretty cool with the text to it: I am a boy, I love my hair. Please stop saying I need a haircut. Me and many of our friends and people around us have the same opinion, so actually I don't hear this sentence that often. Sometimes it happens that people think he is a girl, because of his hair or because of wearing different colors. I like to dress my children colorful, boy or girl. To my opinion we've got all colors available to us to consciously add beauty to the creation that is our life, the same way we can let our hair grow however long we prefer. To me as a mother it is a joy to watch my children unfold naturally. Until something has to be changed out of practical reasons or because the kid wants to look differently, I don't even get the idea to grab the scissors.

My Taoist, ( www.taoistpoetry.com ) recently read aloud for me the words he chose to describe the Chinese concept of Li. The facebook-picture of the happy long-haired boy, the love for my son and this words inspired me to write the poem in this blog. Whatever your personal taste is like if it comes to your or your children's looks, to simply witness Li in a blossom when you go out in nature, will make you feel more at peace with the way things are when you let them..

' Li is nature’s fingerprint.  If I look at the window and notice how frost has formed across the glass, its patterns are expressions of Li.  I can see it in how snowflakes swirl gently on the breeze and in the symmetrical shapes that are made as they drift silently to earth.  Li is the Tao’s dynamic energy at play and may be viewed as a natural order at the centre of how everything unfolds.

Li is very much a part of us but is hardly noticed.  It enters our life without edge or shape and when we become aware of it invokes a deeper understanding of how our day-to-day lives are flowering.  Li nourishes the seed of trust that in allowing it to mould and shape our lives as it naturally would, all will be okay.' Heath Thompson