The Balance We Need
I'm still on my motivate and encourage kick-- still wanting people to truly LIVE their lives! It's a message I firmly believe in, and think most people need to hear over and over again before they act upon it. So with that being said:
At last the sun is shining. Birds are chirping. Flowers are blooming. And allergies are in full swing... This time of year really serves as a good reminder to me that life isn’t ever all-good or all-bad. Spring, this golden time of year, with fresh growth and beautiful, warm days, clean air and playful puppies running through backyards... it’s easy to look around think all is well, everything is good. It’s easy to look back on time and begrudge winter for taking so long to be over, for being so cold and brutal. But then the watery, itchy eyes start up, the bug bites appear, red and angry, on long sun-deprived skin. The rain pours down and floods the streets. There is bad in good, and good in bad. Always. How would you know the true value of joy if you had not experience sorrow? How would you appreciate the heat of a sunny day without the cold of a winter night? And how would you believe and respect love - generous, unending, pure love - if you had not ever experienced pain and misdeed? Life teaches us, often not-so-subtlety, that we require balance. We want seasons and changes, ups and downs. We want experiences! If there was no winter we would take spring for granted. If there was no cold we would take the comfort of warmth for granted. We would grow bored. Complacent. Unappreciative. And where is the fun in that? This life is short. But there are an endless number of experiences waiting to happen, waiting to be pushed into existence during this short life. And all I can say is, cry. No, don’t cry— weep. Weep when you hurt, laugh until your sides ache when you’re gleeful. Dance when you’re excited. Scream at the top of the mountain you just managed to climb, or even at the ikea table you finally put together, even if there are still 7 extra screws. Don’t be afraid to be present in your own existence, to be awake, to be truly alive. Don’t be afraid to feel your life. What you remember, years from now, aren’t the bug bites and watery eyes, it’s the stunning expanse of a orchid garden you randomly decided to rent a car to drive out and see. It’s not your frozen nose on a cold commute to work, it’s the picnic you played hooky to have, on the first sunny day in March, even though it wasn’t really warm enough to enjoy. Feel the good. Feel the bad. Appreciate that life requires both. Appreciate that you can - and do - experience both.
