Decreasing the Information-Seeking: My Contemplation of Verse 48 of the Tao Te Ching

Dr. Dyer's book is Change your Thoughts--Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

Today, I am focusing on verse 48 of the Tao Te Ching:

Learning consists of daily accumulating.

The practice of the Tao consists of daily diminishing;

decreasing and decreasing, until doing nothing.

When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

True mastery can be gained

by letting things go their own way.

It cannot be gained by interfering.

Collections--we all have one or another.  Some collect stamps.  Some collect baseball cards.  Then, there's someone like me, who collects information.  On a daily basis, I am collecting PDFs of printables that I can use with my kids.

In reality, should I be spending all of my time collecting teaching material?  When do I get to spend time with my children?  Hey, I'm just being honest.  I'm terrible about filling up my laptop's desktop with all kinds of useful recipes and medical information.  I need to stop doing that; I don't need anymore.

Perhaps, it's time to stop collecting information.  Perhaps if I stop spending my time collecting information, I can fill my time with precious moments with my children.  Perhaps, memories can be created that my kids will appreciate.  Perhaps, I can just sit here on my bed, dealing with my illness, as my kids visit with me.  Then, something spectacular can happen--bonding.

In order to gain peace in my life, I must pare down my information gathering, which has been time-consuming.  No one is gonna get hurt if I don't download the latest free printable or read the latest Facebook status.  If I let go of my need to find new bits of information, my kids stand a chance to have more time with me.  After all, there isn't much more information that I myself can add to this world.

Thanks for reading today's post about decreasing the information-seeking.  

I appreciate you taking the time to read it.  

I've got some questions for you: Are you spending too much time on a specific collection?  Or are you consumed with information-seeking?  Do you want to experience peace?  Perhaps, cutting down on accumulating something can free you up.  I pray that we all would seek peace from the Source of everything--Father, God.  I pray that we would ask God for His help to experience a deep, loving, and mutually beneficial relationship with Him.

May God bless you, my beloveds, with His wisdom and peace, in Jesus' name.  Amen!

This has been an entry for Wisdom Wednesdays.

I am currently drawing inspiration from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer's book and the 81 verses of the Chinese wisdom book the Tao Te Ching.