Little Bill

It’s a cycle. And I go through it about once a year.

First I’m into seclusion. You know, for self-repair. Then it’s back out into the world for the very same reasons. The last few months of relative seclusion charged a toll. The price? My Self. Where is all the currency coming from? Where does it go?

Though I take little real stock in astrology, my sign is Libra. One could interpret that to mean that it means I strike a balance in things. This could be farther from the truth for me, where it’s either one extreme or another. Either I’m a hermit, or I’m gregarious. Where’s the balance there? Perhaps that’s what I should seek, perhaps it is the place from which I will rediscover the currency of Self.

For the last two years I’ve pondered getting another tattoo. On my forearms I wanted to get some of the Trigrams of the I-Ching. The eight trigrams represent directions on a compass, as well as the element pairs Heaven/Earth, Mountain/Lake, Fire/Water, and Thunder/Wind. Down each forearm would go four trigrams, with its corresponding opposite on the other arm.

I could literally etch into my body a reminder to strike balance. To find a balance between work and play, between society and withdrawal, and maybe even between the material and spiritual.

And maybe then I will have an abundance of currency to bank on and to invest wisely back into my Self.