As members of Tao’s Culture foundation, my
parents spend a lot of time working on programs
held by it. A couple of years ago when Master
Henry Chang gave Tao Te Ching lectures in New
York, my parents would attend meetings weekly,
every Sunday to be exact. At the time , I was of
young age and therefore found it much more
interesting to stay home. After many attemps, I’m
able to persuade my tenacious parents into letting
me stay home. Little did I know it’d be an experience
I’d always remember.
I snuggled deep beneath my bed covers, still
trying to catch some sleep despite the clock showing
it was 1:30 in the afternoon. Outside, a strong
thunderstorm was brewing. Gusts of winds
pushed against trees, making the weak ones lean;
empty trashcans could be heard tumbling down
the streets, encouraged by mischievous air currents
to keep on rolling. Then out of nowhere, an
immensely loud noise thunders. I know what you
may be thinking, but it was not thunder. Now
wide awake and alert, several concepts flutter into
my head as to what could have caused such a
racket. To add to the suspense, the sounds from
outside were now coincidentally louder. After a
few minutes of sitting up in bed, vigilant and
rigid, I conclude that a tree had fallen into my living
room. A silly idea yes, but it would provide
an explanation as to how the noises from outside
now sounded as if they were inside with one less
wall to muffle it.
More thoughts plummeted into my brain. If a
tree really did plunge onto my living room carpet,
what exactly would happen? Neighbors would
come, that was a given, but what about police?
It’s not like I had done anything illegal recently,
but I really doubt average 12 year olds enjoy
spending their afternoons with an officer of the
law.
Eventually, I manage to inch downstairs. A
feeling of pure relief washes over me as soon as I
see that the room is intact, including the roof.
Once I finish a more thorough inspection of the
room, making sure there aren’t any obvious
cracks in the walls or any broken objects, I decide
to find the family cat, Sony. It turns out he was
startled but not frightened. The look on his face
when I found him told me he was alert or trying
hard to be because he just woke up from a deep
slumber.
Sometime around two I call my mom. From
the view of the second-floor bathroom window it
looks as if nothing severe occurred. The cause of
the crash seemed to be a medium sized branch
that fell behind her car, but other than that, nothing.
At least not from what I could see. Okay I
know I could have went outside to get the entire
feel of things, but cops and neighbors had come
by earlier knocking on the door, staying there for
quite some time; therefore, not wanting any attention,
I stayed inside where I was still safe.
Not surprisingly, the
electricity gave way later.
Luckily, the sky had
cleared by now so light
shined in through the
windows eagerly. Out of
extreme boredom, I
turned on the radio and
played some battery-run
videogames. After some
more hours my parents
made it back home.
Going outside, it was then
that I found out how
severe the predicament
really was. It seems that
the view from the outside
is much more accurate
than the one observed
from the inside. It turns
out that not only did a
branch fall behind my
mother’s car but so did
another one, smashing the
wall dividing our driveway and our neighbor’s
driveway. The smashed wall in return, like a
domino, shattered my neighbor’s BMW. Luckily,
he wasn’t in the car when his windows got
smashed. The branch that had caused this domino
chain reaction was a dead limb about one-third
the size of the tree it had split from.
Near the rear of the house laid a large, yet
practically dead tree that loomed only a foot or
two above the actual roof. The limbs that had
flown away were already showing signs of severing. During the storm the
burly winds were the final
catalyst that caused them
to separate. Standing only
about two yards away
from the house it was a
miracle that the branches
didn’t crash straight into
the house but in fact flew
over it. The only scars of
this unfortunate event
were some shingles that
were scraped off when the
branches glided over
them, my mother’s car,
and the cement wall
which collapsed into my
neighbor’s car. Some
might say that it was simply
luck that no one was
injured, but I believe that
it was the protection of
something bigger.
My dad later explained to me that people
who have received Tao are not prone to disasters
as other people are. Of course they still experience
hardships and troubles of everyday life, but
they will never face calamities. I also discovered
that if a misfortune was to ever occur around the
person who cultivated in Tao, not only will he/she
receive protection, but also the people around
him/her. Before I was skeptical about this, now
my outlook on it has changed. Having received
Tao when I was only a month old, I now see how
lucky I am to be part of Tao.