When decisions feel like gifts
You on the Path,
I just got home from a walk on the beach to watch the sunset and greet August goodbye. Can you believe it?… August already came to an end! It’s been an August completely full of surprises for me, not like most Augusts. Looking back, it feels like 2 months fit inside it. And now, here at the West coast of Portugal, watching the last sunset of the month, the tides already flow much wilder, a completely new vibe is in the air…. it’s September arriving! I drove home, had a glass of homemade soy milk with cardamon, ate a handful of roasted hazelnuts + my favorite very dark chocolate, and sat down to write to you.
First of all, thank you for the b e a u t i f u l and touching messages you sent me regarding the two first Letters from the Path. I’m so GRATEFUL! Your emails give this extra meaning & purpose. Much much appreciated. It is an honor to know you’re out there, and a true joy to sit and write to you. August is also the month when I started writing these letters, and I am so happy about that!
For me this month has been a masterclass in decision making and discernment. It’s been so uniquely full of surprises and all sorts of options coming out of left field. People leaving and entering my life, health things that surprised me, then big huge house things, and work things (so many!), and traveling things, and love things, and spiritual things…. all sorts of stuff surprised me this month. And all in August, a typically lazy beach-going month here in Cascais. Now it’s the very end of the month, the last hours really, and I am so happy and grateful to feel that I made really good decisions this August.
What I’m enjoying the most is that all my August decisions came with ease, that I paused and waited, and resisted the urge to decide before knowing from a deeper place, before feeling into it, before having higher clarity on what to do. It was so good to wait for that ease that emerges, entirely in its own timing. Making choices from that place feels like receiving a gift. Very different from problem solving, or achieving a task I engaged my brain in. Much softer, much lighter, much more relaxed. Pure ease. Joyful.
This is a good time to share with you one of the books I've been reading this August. That's Ursula K. Le Guin's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching. It's feeling so special to dive into this book once again, now with a different twist to it. Her version feels so alive, so present-moment, so direct. I love it!
There's this passage from Chapter 73 that keeps coming back to me: "The way of heaven doesn't compete yet wins handily, doesn't speak yet answers fully, doesn't summon yet attracts. It acts perfectly easily."
That piece "It acts perfectly easily" … yes! This is exactly it. Towards the end of the month I got to chapter 73 and felt that it sums up perfectly well what’s been happening in my August. The best choices I made didn't come from brave daring or forcing my way forward, but from what Le Guin interpreted as "brave caution" - the wisdom of pausing, waiting, letting clarity emerge in its own time.
Here’s Chapter 73 for you:
Daring to do
Brave daring leads to death.
Brave caution leads to life.
The choice can be the right one
or the wrong one.
Who will interpret
the judgment of heaven?
Even the wise soul
finds it hard.
The way of heaven
doesn't compete
yet wins handily,
doesn't speak
yet answers fully,
doesn't summon
yet attracts.
It acts
perfectly easily.
The net of heaven
is vast, vast,
wide-meshed,
yet misses nothing.
And how exactly did all of this play out in August? There were many things. For example, my hiking plans. For years, around this time of year, I'd automatically be planning to go to Kathmandu to start getting ready for a trek in the higher Himalayas. It kind of became what I do - late September means Nepal, means altitude, means those mountains that have been Home for decades. But this year, when I went to book a flight, something felt... a little flat. Not wrong … just not vibrant enough, not flowing on its own, not happening easily. So I paused.
Similar thing when I considered booking a flight to go back to Japan for Autumn. I love it so much there that time of the year. I’ve been considering moving to Japan, I have friends I want to spend time with there, and a big list of things to do in Japan - from a purely rational point of view, I should be going there now. But it did not feel like water finding its easy flow downstream. So I paused.
Soon after that I met a friend from Bilbao who works at a very special theatre. She told me about the theatre moving to a new building soon. Immediately I knew I wanted to go see the last play they’ll have in the old and very iconic warehouse. So… Bilbao! I can go there because I didn’t book those other flights. Then I thought… I can walk another part of the Camino de Santiago. I’ve walked five caminos, and usually am always happy to return. I went to book it…. and again, it didn’t feel that alive, it was kind of muted. So I left the idea on hold. Very soon after, one morning over breakfast I start to see images in my mind of the Picos de Europa mountains. They’re not far from Bilbao! … It’s like it whispered itself into my awareness, and I felt completely in flow. I immediately made a travel plan and the things almost booked themselves for me. It’s like the plan was already alive and I just heard it. Spain! Much closer than Nepal. Perfect when I’m trying to have more home & travel balance. Different mountains from the Himalayas, and mountains that suddenly felt like exactly where I need to be. The decision emerged so easily from that space left open when I didn’t push toward my usual patterns. Now it feels just right. Exactly like receiving a gift.
Similar thing with a somatic movement course I usually take in September or October in northeast Germany - it’s always there, it’s so aligned with what I love exploring, but when I really listened this year… I didn’t feel completely there. Again, once I paused that decision, one morning as I stepped into my yoga mat, I felt a strong calling to go back to India to continue to study with my yoga teacher in Rishikesh. It’s unreal how that plan completely formed itself. A course I didn't even know existed had perfect dates that fit everything else with total ease. It is such a good feeling to be guided like this.
My entire month was like this. From almost moving houses but not feeling sure, so I paused to plant kale in the garden. I waited for the first sprouts, and in the process got clarity about staying here now (at least a little longer). Similar things with health practitioners & information that flowed into my life with total ease while I waited for clarity, and letters that arrived just in time for things I needed to decide, a very unique phone call from a friend I really missed who kind of changed my month entirely. Even a spontaneous rebranding project happened at Namkha, which made me rethink Namkha’s vision & roadmap. From that focused moment… what quietly emerged was the whisper “Let’s go back to Tibet next year”… And this message was so full of synchronicities that I could write a whole page just about it.
Instead of telling you more Tibet synchronicity stories now, what I want to do is invite you to join me on that trip! If you’ve been in my life for a while, you know that Tibetan culture, along with my studies in Tibetan Buddhism, are my ground. Since I first thought about going to Tibet (in 1996), I couldn’t rest until I finally got there in 2004 for my first 6-week trip. Each time I return it’s a complete SOUL JOY. We can share all the stories once we’re there!! We already have a small group made up of travelers who’ve been in the Himalayas with me before. I’d say the seed of this trip was put in the ground in Bhutan during a very powerful eclipse back in 2023. And here we are now, in eclipse season of 2025, almost ready to harvest it. If you’re interested in joining us to celebrate Saga Dawa in Tibet next year, please register here.
And yes, this all ties up with the upcoming eclipses in Virgo and Pisces in September. This feels very Virgo-Pisces eclipse like. Virgo is mental decision making but is also discernment, and Pisces can bring confusion, but is also things flowing into place by Grace, and deep faith in the path. This axis asks us to find the sweet spot between these two - using our Virgo capacity for wise discernment without getting trapped in Virgo overthinking, while trusting Pisces flow and faith without getting lost in Pisces fogginess or illusion.
What I experienced this August had to do with this balance: I used my discernment to pause when something felt flat or forced (Virgo wisdom), but then I trusted that clarity would emerge in its own time (Pisces grace). Not the mental gymnastics of pros-and-cons lists, but the deeper knowing that comes when we stop pushing and allow Life to speak. Discernment guided by flow, practical wisdom informed by trust in the path.
The Practical Dance
So how can we cultivate this ease? How do we learn to receive decisions as gifts rather than wrestling with our mind until resolution?
Pause the urge to decide. When a decision feels pressing, especially if it involves booking things, committing to something, or saying a final yes - pause. Give it time. Allow the decision to come from spaciousness.
Be attuned to aliveness. Before committing to things, I check: Does this feel alive in my body? Can I feel that it moves on its own without me involving my mind? Does it have that quality of true emergence? Or am I pushing water uphill? The alive decisions have a different texture - they feel like receiving rather than achieving.
Trust the timing of clarity. Some decisions aren't meant to be made today. The information isn't complete, or the internal knowing hasn't fully formed. Instead of forcing a resolution, I know that the right decision will be clear when it’s here.
Watch for what’s emerging. Life often drops little hints about what wants to emerge - a friend mentioning something, an image that pops into your mind, a book that appears at the right moment. These aren't coincidences; they're part of how clarity forms.
Practice "brave caution". This doesn't mean being fearful or passive. It means being brave to wait for real knowing instead of acting from anxiety, social pressure, or old patterns. Having the courage to be guided where to go, instead of forcing a plan.
The next time you feel pressured to make a decision quickly, try asking: "What does brave caution look like here?" Sometimes the bravest thing is to wait until the way becomes clear.
Maybe this is what walking with the Tao feels like - that quality of acting with perfect ease, not competing yet always arriving exactly where we need to be.
Always a delight to walk with you. May your decisions feel like gifts.
Rita
