The entry below is not a commentary of The Book of Lieh Tzu that has appeared here over the past one hundred twenty-seven entries. It’s an interlude to reflect on the path I am on and am here to continue. Writing this entry below back in August 1995 was a good place to mark the next step in the journey I am here to continue. 
Reflecting on our memories feels like gazing into universal time, something beyond what is considered to be our understanding.
How can we truly know our age or the way we connect to spirit? Throughout history, it’s been about how our knowledge engages with the timeless wisdom that’s always available to us. It’s like living with both serendipity and synchronicity and seeing which one we choose to follow.
Life can feel like a cross-country trip, moving from where you started to where this particular journey will end. But the journey itself didn’t just begin with this trip—it started long ago, perhaps thousands of years ago, as spirit traveling through space and time. At seventy-three, there have been countless moments along the way where I’ve stopped to reflect and deepen our understanding of who we truly are. Experiences with family, college, various jobs, and even travel, like my time in China, all playing a meaningful role with the best parts conveyed through my stories, writing, and what remains to be said.
But what if there is a more cosmic contribution to this universal flow, we are here to accept and nurture that serves to guide us to the next role we are here to learn and follow. That wisdom is in a constant state of flux, eternal beyond what we think we know and changes over time. That the universe has no center, and acts in unison with us, all around us, within us, as One.
When I was in Lhasa, Tibet, I stopped by an elderly gentleman along the ring road and sat for a few moments. In our conversation he reflected that
“We are everywhere and in everything: we are the sun and stars. I am time and space and I am He. When I am everywhere, where can I move? When there are no past and no future, and I am eternal existence, then where is time?”
When we realize that the universe moves in harmony with us, how does that transform our understanding of our role? With no boundaries to anything, only infinite interpretations of the universe—a molecular flow, a cosmic energy confirmed by Hubble with countless galaxies—present in everything within nature including us. This ancient intuition that says all energy is simply the crystallization of this cosmic heart/mind, this flow, and that things merely change shape or form.
Finally in the Bible, in the Book of Job, the Lord demands, “Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou has understanding! Who laid the cornerstones thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” The only answer we could have would be “I was there!”… we all were.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Eight – Explaining Conjunctions
128. A visit with old friends
Remaining as one with the universe. One’s instincts in constant tune with your surroundings. The only secrets worth telling remaining those that remain non‑contending. Staying in the background as the ever‑knowing sage. 
As you have seen it all before, is not your time better spent seeking the wisdom and knowledge you find in conversing with your old friends that you have recently re‑discovered.
As you have been away for a millennium but have now come home again. Everyone, Lieh, Chuang, Lao and all the others waiting to hear why you have been away for so long. Or then again, was it only for just an instant?
You explain that you have been exploring human nature and trying to understand how people through the ages could become so confused and off‑centered. That those you have come across are vain in the prime of their beauty and remain impetuous in their strength. That they are quick to tell others how to live without consideration of how they should do so themselves. That all those you have come across seem lost in their own attachments.
They remain inept in their attempts to find the Way, and even more so when they think they have. There remains this constant sense of need to remain proud and impetuous so that it remains difficult to impart and relay the true essence and goodness needed to preserve humanity. Instead of remaining as one with nature, they seem intent on destroying it. Finally, they must constantly be reminded of who they are to become and need someone or something to keep them steady.
As you finish your account, knowing glances abound as others have come and gone and relayed similar stories. All want to know if you are planning to stay with your old friends or return to your writing in hopes that perhaps one in a thousand may come forward to learn the proper way.
You are amused in that it is known that the sage gives his work to others so that his own power does not diminish as he grows old. Otherwise grappling with confusion when his own knowledge runs out.
Back home after a thousand years and the only question that remains is when you leave again. 8/5/95
Number one hundred twenty-eight of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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