The Way and the Power of Virtue

  Broken yet made whole, twisted yet straightened out,  hollowed out yet filled up,  tattered yet renewed,  among the few yet obtaining, among the many yet confused. This is why the sages embrace and hold on to unity  as the shepherd of the world. The metaphors used in this passage to describe our journey of becoming sages (wise people) on the Way are all about restoration and speak to deep-seated emotional needs.  In our own ways, each of us feels misshapen, crooked, twisted, and broken at times as we go round and round riding on that roller coaster of relative worth with its corkscrew of constant comparison .  We get all screwed up and bent out of shape about things that don’t really matter.  Sometimes we feel heavily burdened and weighed down with regret, remorse, guilt, and shame, dragging the past around with us like a weight around our necks.  We feel empty inside, hollowed out, and tattered, and alone even as we feel like we are ju...