Do you know how things rarely turn out the way we think, plan, or expect? Like, the aggressive curveballs thrown at us that life so graciously (and many times with a VERY twisted sense of humor) bestows upon us to endure….
No one says life is supposed to be easy, right?? Like, ALWAYS walking-on-clouds and skipping-down-the-yellow-brick-road-of-bliss, EVERY day, with no stress, sadness, worries, or fears.
☁️😃🌥😊⛅️☺️🌤🙃☁️🤗🌥😀⛅️😊🌤
As lovely as that may sound, perhaps the dichotomy of life is what brings true meaning to being here and being alive. Sunshine and thunderstorms; brightness and darkness; happiness and sadness; health and sickness; joy and indifference; smiles and tears; ease and hardship; work and rest; seriousness and play; kindness and discourteousness…….torn ACL’s and mended ACL’s….and so on.
That last one was more for me, of course. 😉
The negative or darker sides often contribute to the positive and lighter sides by enhancing their presence and their meaning, and allowing us to appreciate the sides we see as “good” even more.
And life is not complete without both sides.
Like Yin and Yang, life is woven together with both the light and dark sides of the spectrum, offering the depth in our lives to FEEL and EXPERIENCE the differences between something severely unpleasant and something truly euphoric…or just something bland and something super tasty. Both sides actually complement each other and, as shown in this symbol, there is a balance between the opposite relationships as well as a small piece that connects them to each other. Often, we cannot have one side without the other AND we cannot fully realize the reality of one side without the other.
Like, if I only ate bland foods and didn’t realize that more foods existed that had such exceptional taste, I would never realize what I was missing. BUT if I slipped up and, within my very bland diet of mush, I ate something magical……🤯 WHOA, doesn’t that just change my food world! It would make me appreciate the tasty food that much more and most likely cause my food selections to shift more towards the tasty side, you know??? Knowledge is power.
It’s also like individuals who live in a tropical or desert-like climate and have never experienced snow in person. They could hear stories and see pictures and videos all day about snow, snowstorms, driving through snow, and what it might be like to walk through a blizzard…..but until these individuals experience it for themselves, they won’t have a full understanding of what it’s really like for themselves. They may have an opinion of snow, based on what they’ve seen and read, but that could radically change once they felt the cold and actually set foot in or drove through a winter wonderland. Experience and first-hand knowledge can change EVERYTHING.
This is true for humans viewing humans, too. If we rarely travel beyond our neighborhood, our town, and the 50-mile radius of our location, it is incredibly difficult to be exposed to or even to interact with people who are vastly different from us. Then when opinions are flying and slanderous stories are heard about BIPOC, the LGBTQ community, and people of any cultural background, this often creates misunderstandings, stereotypes, prejudices, and biases concerning these people that we don’t know at all….which may lead to fear, conflict, hate, and violence that has no basis (except our flying misconceptions) and is unnecessary. Our ability to relate to these “different” people are minimized because we have no personal connection to them and to who they are. It’s easy to get lost in our opinions, in hearsay, and in fears of the unknown.
With our own first-hand experience and first-hand knowledge, we invite true understanding and the willingness to put down the fear in order to see the actual truth and not our opinion-generated truth. To move towards connection and appreciate the humanness that we all share.
There is a certain beauty and value in gaining insight and wisdom as we walk through our life’s journey, alongside other diverse and similar beings, gaining as many experiences as we can. It has the power to widen a tunnel-vision view and give us more freedom in our perspective.
We’re allowed to change our minds when we see something that contradicts an original view. (It’s okay to acknowledge that a belief is no longer useful or needed and create a new belief that serves us.)
We’re allowed to make mistakes and strive to learn from what happened so we prevent a repetition of that same mistake. (It’s okay to be wrong, to acknowledge that we messed up, AND to strive to self-correct and be better.)
We’re allowed to grow and build our character and our own individual path, even if it means losing connections and relationships along the way. (As we grow and evolve, sometimes we outgrow the relationships around us and we are meant to wish them well and let them go. And that’s okay, too.)
And even more than “allowing” these previous things to occur, we are all ENCOURAGED to do them. To broaden our horizons, to find what brings us joy, to find inspiration from any and all sources, to shed what we no longer need, and to welcome our developmental changes as our intellect and our views expand. To interact and meet people from all walks of life and all cultures so that we may recognize and appreciate our commonalities as well as our differences.
We become better humans by allowing our minds to evolve with our lessons learned, by choosing to have open minds and compassionate hearts, and by our devotion to wanting to be a good person.
We become better humans by being someone who cares about other people, PERIOD. (OR, if that seems unlikely or perplexing, perhaps choosing to be someone who lets people live their lives without meddling in their lifestyle and not choosing to let it upset your own lifestyle. See, most likely these other people have limited bearing on our lives unless we turn our attention to them BY CHOICE.)
Also, we become better humans by being someone who views their only real competition as who they were yesterday, (minus being involved in sports and other actual competitions). Wanting to improve on ourselves each and every day is how awareness builds and the world changes. It starts within before the outside follows suit.
So, here’s the deal and why I have been contemplating opposites this week:
Ever since I posted last Wednesday, it has been a nail-biting, intense, and nerve-wracking week, waiting on the results of Election 2020. AND THEN, the announcement was made on Saturday!! Wow, so many feels, emotions, and an immense amount of calm has inhabited my body. Election DONE, Joe Biden is the President-Elect of the USA, and we can look forward to fresh leadership that will work tirelessly to heal, unite, and improve our great nation, one step at a time. Plus, Kamala Harris being the FIRST woman, Asian-American, and African-American to be Vice President of the USA……HISTORIC!!! And an exceptional inspiration to all women and little girls, especially black and Indian girls, that they can strive to dream as big as their imaginations can stretch and maybe follow in Kamala’s footsteps. 👣
And maybe you’re reading this and you did not vote or root for Biden so you’re furious at the results of this election. I still believe that the healing, uniting, and improving of our great nation will benefit you as well. Because that’s the whole point of being the UNITED STATES of America – – the decisions, the proposals, the agendas, and the legislature are supposed to protect, support, and benefit the ENTIRE country. And that includes you.
In any case, I’ve been thinking about how different these past four years have been, compared to any other presidential term that I can remember. And it makes me think of this question, which is meant to help clarify the small world around each of us and open our eyes to seeing the same things in a different way:
And this can be looked at and asked in our individual lives as well as with regard to our country and it’s direction as a collective whole. And it can be a very challenging perspective to take but also one that can open new doors and provide major clarity if asked…
I was thinking that perhaps just asking for more change was too vast, four years ago, and that provided the perfect storm of dominoes to fall into place and pave the way for Trump. Sometimes we have to be careful for what we ask for because it rarely happens the way that we expect, think, or plan, like I have mentioned before. He certainly provided a change to how we and the world have viewed the Presidential position in the USA……
Maybe the entire world needed a good dose of Trump……On one hand, he exposed some people’s true colors and made it explicitly clear who has a bit of vengeance, hatred, fear, and/or indifference to people they see as “different” and people they seemingly do not (and do not want to) understand.
On the other hand, Trump also inspired us to appreciate what we had, to see the full extent of what is truly broken and needs massive fixing, to dig deep and readjust our sights to new heights, and to realize how lucky we are to live in this democracy that is the USA – – or wherever you find yourself living at this present time.
Maybe both hands are the dichotomy of life showing up as a reminder to be grateful that we now know where people stand on moral and humane issues; that we should lead and live with love and not anger and fear; that making mistakes and owning them are not signs of weakness but rather a testament to having the courage to be vulnerable; that we should seek the truth no matter how buried and skewed it becomes; and that we must come together during times of struggle rather than finding reason for division.
Again, opposites feed off of each other, relate to each other, and provide greater insights to the possibilities on each side. I believe Trump and Biden are on the opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of demeanor, qualifications, and character, amongst others. And moving from a nation divided and struggling to a nation coming together and rising, will make the resulting outcomes that much sweeter, that much more powerful, and that much more revitalizing for those that just want an equal chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The “American Way” that everyone should have the opportunity to pursue.
Perhaps witnessing how far our country could really fall was needed in order to actually remove some enormous blinders, reveal the reality of where we stand as a nation, and hopefully create the starting momentum for addressing the dire and life-threatening issues, (including COVID), that plague so many people in our communities.
Yet, WHO FREAKIN’ KNOWS??!!??!! These are just my thoughts on the matter, that’s all, and I welcome any thoughts that you may have as you have read my words.
And at the very least and in the simplest of terms, it can be said that:
I believe we have all learned a lot over the past four roller coaster years that has made us MUCH stronger than we were before.
NOW, I do believe that the Universe provides signs when we’re on a productive and useful path. And this past weekend and the beginning of this week were beautiful and so sunshiney!!!! Like warm Spring/early Summer days in November, when it’s usually cold and maybe full of snow!!!
Those sparkling rays are glowing with hope and promise – – – Supporting the winning Biden/Harris ticket and their supreme expertise and leadership skills, or so I believe.
Not to mention that thousands upon thousands of people from around the world danced and rejoiced after the announcement of the USA 2020 Election. That is very telling as well, when the world finds relief with the results of Biden soon-to-be in the highest position on U.S. soil. It’s almost time to swing to the other side of the “opposites spectrum” for a while.
In the meantime, wherever you are:
Since opposites do make the world go ’round and ’round, after all, and our energy and our thoughts contribute to how we feel along the way. Why not influence that pendulum to stick around on the positive side of the spectrum as long as it possibly can?! ♥️🦋🐞🌺☘️🌻🌞✨🌸🌟🌺💫