Integrity and Disasters

"Which do you value more --

  your wealth or your wellness?

  Which is more harmful --

   to lead or to lose?

 The greater your attachment,

  the more bereft is your release.

  The more you hoard,

  the less is left to enjoy.

  Those on the path

  to the Great Integrity

  flow without forcing,

  leaving no space for disasters."

I came across this verse in the TAO TE CHING.  I admit I know very little about the TAO but every once in a while I pick up this little book full of sage nuggets, and something really touches me on a visceral level. How much and WHY are we so connected to our materialistic "things?"  Our idea of WHO we should be as opposed to WHO we really are? And why are we always searching to gain our identity through what we own, what we possess?  Why do we spend so much time "forcing" things and ideas?  I'm just as guilty of this as the next person. But with awareness comes the possibility of change.

A new year has begun and with it new hopes and dreams. There are so many things we'd like to change about ourselves, maybe our weight, exercising more, taking charge of our finances, the list goes on and on. And of course these are all admirable, desirable and important goals.
What I'm working on myself this year is acceptance. Acceptance of myself and my faults, acceptance of those loved ones in my life who don't always seem to do what I want them to do, acceptance of even the more simple things, the laundry and dishes piling up and not getting around to making up the bed. Big deal.
I've always been a bit of a perfectionist in certain areas, things like a crooked picture frame hanging on the wall can be cause for great distraction (until I'm able to adjust it just so.)
I'd like to create a path towards a greater integrity within myself, within the world. It is there, it is there within all of us, it is part of the universe.

Let's us all strive to flow more, to be in the moment, to accept and love without judgement.