Who can free himself from achievement
Thomas Merton, The Way of Zhuangzi, New Directions
And from fame, descend and be lost
Amid the masses of men?
He will flow like Tao, unseen,
He will go about like Life itself
With no name and no home.
With that proviso:
Small Mountain Wanderer is a one-time landscape painter, waylaid by such diverse occupations as raising children, building drystone walls, growing vegetables, making and teaching music and more latterly practicing as a psychotherapist. Having feared that the muse of the plastic arts may have forsaken him for good, he was happily reunited with her at the suitably auspicious location of the Laojun Pavilion at the summit of Mount Qingcheng, Sichuan Province. The creative consequences of this encounter continue to unfold in various unforeseen ways. Covid-19 restrictions and a dysfunctional public transport system conspired to oblige him to venture into the previously uncharted terrain of the small mountain ranges of Dorset where he currently wanders. He shows no sign of surfacing from an extended deep dive into the philosophy of the Zhuangzi. Since it is bottomless, it’s probably safe to assume he may yet be some time…
Contact Small Mountain Wanderer at asharhian@hotmail.co.uk
