Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus, whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail. - Lao Tzu, as found in Atomic Habits by James Clear
In this season of Easter | Passover |Ramadan—all times of self-reflection—we contemplate what it means to live fully and well.
The soft, supple, tender, pliant, and yielding are alive and growing. They stretch toward sunny new truths.
The stiff, hard, brittle, dry, and inflexible are breaking. They crumble and return to dust.
For me this is Easter Monday morning. A time of new life, in whatever way you believe it to be. A time of recognizing that good always arises out of the darkest of times.
I just need to remember that during the dark times.
Not grow dry and brittle. Stay soft and supple and ready for new life.
Somerton Smith 
This is a reminder to pray for more collagen – ha!
Seriously, the cares of the world can beat us into brittleness. Your encouragement to be more soft and supple is an encouraging call. Thank you, Arlene! 😀
Ha ha, I’ll take more collagen too! I need all the help for the squatting I do as part of my work at the library.
These days I am finding that I need to make room for forgiveness, and that requires lots of that supple flexibility.
Good way to think about life. I need to be less brittle, too. I can be flexible, just need to focus on that.
My goodness, I would never think of you as brittle. You are way too much fun for that!