‘It is the small man who overcomes’ spoken to me by the Self (19/2/12). It is the kiss of the soul, ‘the woman who calms’ which unites a man to the earth, to the concrete, to the real, to unfolding life, to connection. The truly masculine man is grounded in his soul. In Taoism it is the feminine principle ‘the woman who calms’ that allows a man to flow with Being: with the power of the Tao. The Tao Te Ching puts it this way: ‘He who stands on tiptoe, doesn’t stand firm/He who rushes ahead, doesn’t go far/He who tries to shine, dims his own light/ He who defines himself, cant know who he really is/he who has power over others, can’t empower himself/He who clings to his work, will create nothing that endures/If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go’ (24, Stephen Mitchell translation). The poem reminds me of Jesus’ story, of the foolish man, who built his house on the sandy ground of his ego… rather than the solid rock of the Self (or true nature). Within ‘the small man’ (the now purified & empowered) ego, flows in a dynamic relationship with its rock; the Self. This man overcomes.