It’s hard to determine what the “first principle” is. Taoists refer to it all the time, but, since the Tao is undefinable, it is not explained.  As much as I can tell, it is like watching a river.

It flows.  it is never ending, always rushing, bouncing, foaming, polishing.  if a good fisherman knows the way the river flows, through seasons and time of day, she can catch the best fish.

So I learn more and more to be aware of how the flow is around me.  Not pushing the river, struggling to make life what it is not.  Yet pointing my little raft in the direction I choose, hopefully over instead of against the rocks.  I am not a salmon, therefore after a while of going against the flow, I surrender to the current, lie back on my little tire tube and bounce downstream.

The Divine is present in me, my raft, the river, the shore, the air the mountains and the flow.