August 2

I awoke at 5:30 this morning and pulled back the blinds to find the cows already lined up, contentedly grazing their breakfast. How they sustain life purely on grass is a marvel of nature, though I know the farmer supplements their diet with bread to fatten them up. As I watched their methodical munching, my mind wandered to thoughts of energy and Taoism – two concepts that, to me, are natural bedfellows.

Energy, at its most fundamental level, is a constant flux and flow of atoms. As the physicist Richard Feynman once noted, “All things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion.”¹ Yet what fascinates me most is that atoms themselves are almost entirely empty space. In fact, if an atom were the size of a cathedral, the nucleus would be no bigger than a fly buzzing around inside it.²

This concept of emptiness being integral to form reminds me of a verse from the Tao Te Ching:

“We shape clay into a pot, But it is the space inside that makes it useful.”³

The Taoist sages recognized that utility often lies not in the material itself, but in the space it creates. Just as a room is defined by its walls but made useful by its emptiness, so too are atoms mostly vacant, yet they compose all we see and touch.

As I pondered this, watching the cows in their unhurried grazing, it struck me: these creatures, in their simple existence, embody a kind of Taoist ideal. They don’t struggle against their nature or environment. They simply are, flowing with the rhythm of the day, finding sustenance in the grass beneath their feet.

Perhaps we humans, with our ceaseless striving and doing, could learn something from these bovine philosophers. Maybe true wisdom lies not in filling every moment with activity, but in recognizing the value of emptiness – both in the atoms that compose us and in the spaces between our thoughts and actions.

As I turn away from the window to start my day, I carry with me this image of the cows and their unintentional Taoist practice. In a world that often feels chaotic and overwhelming, there’s a profound peace in embracing the emptiness within and around us.