Yin and yang. Im grateful tonight for yin yoga class. It was very needed after an extraordinarily yang day that had my brain spinning at full tilt - or close to it. Make no mistake. Im grateful for active, yang energy. Its often needed to solve problems and gather momentum and blaze a trail ahead. Sometimes, we move, or we die, and to choose to stay stagnant is not an option. And our most yang moments, aside from being necessary, also carry with them extraordinary beauty. Those moments where I am juggling multiple competing objectives, searching and advocating passionately for solutions to problems, and working fast and furious to create and change, are some of my most glorious. This is even truer the greater the challenge and the speed with which it must be overcome. When things are do or die, having the courage to change the things we can is not only essential, but a glorious opportunity to affirm to ourselves and others the powerful beings we are. It is exhilarating to be so vibrant and alive: Im not asleep, Im up for the fight Into the magic And I dont want the concrete I am alive comes with the tragic So if its just tonight The animal inside, let it live then die This is our last chance Give me your hands Cause our world is spinning at the speed of light The night is fading, heart is racing Now, just come and love me like were gonna die - Kesha, Animal But to exist forever and always so rushing forward, moving, deciding, managing, manipulating is not our destiny, either. It is exhausting, and it is also inefficient. Its one of the tragic realities of our modern world that often the response to a simple how have you been is busy. Often, we confuse busyness with productivity. We can keep ourselves busy doing things of real value, but we can also go about keeping busy by finding things to do that are utterly unimportant and unnecessary in order to run away from what is more fundamental, and to fend off the constant criticism leveled in our age that if there is something wrong in our lives, it must be because we are not doing enough. In fact, sometimes our problem is the exact opposite. We are run down and exhausted from doing too much, from neurotic busyness trying to control things that cannot be controlled. We cannot win every battle, we cannot plan for every contingency, we cannot protect against every tragedy. The universe operates on choice and agency, but it also operates on trust. Sometimes, we must let go and let God. Or let others do their part. We are unkind to this virtue, and in our modern world we often fail to appreciate the wisdom and virtue in a yin approach to life. There is a time to speak, to act, to be aggressive. But there is also a time to be silent, to refrain, to be passive. Passivity, softness, vulnerability, permissivity - these are seen as weaknesses and evils in our age. But in fact they are a universal part of the human experience. And there is often nothing more valiant than to offer up the extraordinary trust that embracing the virtue in these characteristics requires. There is also power in this approach. Sometimes we can build shelter against and fight or manipulate and dominate and defend or even capture and harness wind and wave. But sometimes they are greater than we and our survival depends on falling into them like the arms of a loving parent with faith and confidence that we will weather the storm. Fighting against them may only waste our energy and lead us to suffocate or drown. Or to resist may just deny us the beauty of being carried ashore to a land of promise, or borne upward to alight over the rainbow in a world with beauty and possibility we had only dreamed could exist. My energy is fundamentally yang, though it fluctuates radically. I am oftentimes not a patient person and seek to fix, to manage, to control excessively. I have been blessed over the last few years to encounter many who have taught me and helped me appreciate that there are times where I need to let go, to be lifes passenger, to trust that after I have done my part the universe will take care of the rest, and that amidst storms beyond my control I must at times simply wait for them to pass. When your life is going too fast Off the train tracks I can slow it down Just when you think your bout to turn back Scared you might crash Ill be your ground When you feel your hearts guarded And you see the breaks started And when the clouds have all departed Youll be right here with me - Brandy, Right Here (Departed) I tend to fly forward and feel most myself with my head in the clouds and my thoughts flowing like lightning. But I am grateful to those who when it is proper, bring me to ground. Creatures of each type tend to judge the other for their relative natural style and speed of movement, thought, and purpose. But in our full and complete beings, we are of course both rooted and winged, capable of flying and having our feet on the ground, both. Sometimes, there is madness in excessive inaction, and in moving too slow, and sometimes, there is madness in excessive effort and in moving too fast. Our great challenge is to discern, sometimes with our natural tendencies and talents, and sometimes contra the same, where and when which approach or combination thereof will fulfill the purpose of our existence.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 08:13:20 +0000
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