To Really Rule The World....

Recently I have been conducting interviews for applicants for chefs de cuisine. Our restaurant chain is expanding, thank you,thank you. We're opening a string of branches more this year. Yes- it will mean more work on my part...ergo, I was advised by the seer to have lesser resistance. Soon, these men will be reporting to me and although the Emperor's expectations are up my neck...gosh...I decide to just let go.

Anyway, among the men I had down the line have very impressive resumes and their skill levels are truly way, way up my own. Placed alongside these men, this is my answer: I know nothing.

But what would you feel when, when you walk inside a room, your subordinates would bow at you and some of them would start kissing your hand? Who the bleep do you think you are- Queen Elizabeth?

I have said some time before that the gods do have a fine sense of humor. Sometimes I imagine them sipping nectar at Mount Olympus and way up from above they'd see you- a mere mortal- and appoint you to lead these knifed men. Well, I don't care anymore. Let the deities do what they will and just obey.

I have a very simple regimen to go through this. I wake up way before the sun is up. That way, you have that feeling of 'being the first', and that the world is all yours for the taking.

The parking spaces are quiet, and your neighbors are still snoring in their bed...

You jog down that bamboo- lined lane behind your building...

No one else there except you, and you half imagine yourself in a takenoko farm in Kyoto :)

The grass is damp, the evening lights are lit.

The world is sleeping, and yes, you're awake.

Even the children's playground is empty...

No, this is not your TV screen...

This is that open sky; that void wherein you reach out and declare in its infinity all your gratitude and all your trust.

- for what is it that we truly know?

Just give thanks that you are given numerous chances to grow in the wilderness...