Friday, April 15, 2011

The Need To Win

I know I have not been posting a lot lately here. However, everyday I want to write here, I just don't make it. Days are busy with Matthew, and really feel bad when I have to let him play alone. Every day I think about things I can write here, but now they are just titles and notes in my notebook. I will, I will - just like in the book The Little Engine That Could - 'I think I can, I think I can'.

Let me share something I read recently in the The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton, a little book I once picked up at the bookstore. I can also relate.

'When an archer is shooting for nothing
He has all his skill.
If he shoots for a brass buckle
He is already nervous.
If he shoots for a prize of gold
He goes blind
Or sees two targets - 
He is out of his mind!


His skill has not changed. But the prize
Divides him. He cares.
He thinks more of winning
Than of shooting -
And the need to win
Drains him of power.'