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Fah Moh — 04/10/23

Hello Daoist friends and visitors. I've been wintering at Tao Garden, the well-known Daoist retreat center near Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, I've enjoyed my 27th winter here. It's mid-April 2023. The past five months have been productive for my practice and completely unique in all those years for many reasons. The transformative COVID-19 years are worth noting, as they have impacted virtually everyone. Myself almost certainly less than most. As I have been "retired" for 11 years already, I simply hibernated aboard Santorini, my 45 ft cruising sailboat.

As a natural and enthusiastic hermit, it seemed quite natural to me. My family, friends and neighbours on the dock were definately not in the same state of mind. I quckly realized that how you viewed the pandemic and the restrictions imposed fundamentally reflected how the events impacted your life and livelihood. This is hardly surprising. Restrictions on personal liberty are hard to swallow, increasingly so if they seriously impacted your livelihood