David Rynick is a Zen teacher authorized in two lineages and a life and leadership coach. He is a master of everyday spirituality who came to this gift through his parents: a father who as a Presbyterian minister looked for God in the ordinary and a mother who appreciated wonders and beauty in her days and doings. Rynick's Zen memoir consists of short observations on what shows up in his life during the four seasons. Here are a few examples.
Anxieties run rampant in his mind the first morning home after a week's vacation. He talks himself back into the saddle with the counsel "everything will be just fine."
While in the family pottery studio, Rynick is overcome with sadness that his daughter has grown up so fast and is no longer a little girl. He notes:
"We can't hold on to anything, not even those we most love. Tears and sadness seem to be an appropriate response in the face of the preciousness and transience of our lives."
After he and his wife, also a Zen teacher, move into a Zen center, they both feel the energy surge that comes with change.
With the arrival of autumn, Rynick looks at the leaves tumbling down to the ground from the trees and finds a beauty in falling that he would like to achieve.
In the window of a beauty salon, there is a hand-written sign that says: "Thank you for your devotion." The author takes it as a direct message from the universe to persevere and stay the course.
This Truth Never Fails is a delight to read since Rynick is a gifted writer and storyteller with a poet's eye and a Zen master's ease in dispensing wisdom. Whether considering coffee, Christmas, receiving and giving, patience or grumbling, this author can be counted on to deliver sensitive insights about the human spirit as revealed in ordinary experiences.
