...Homemade Rainbows...


Wednesday, January 14, 2009

living in balance

I found this three days ago.

A stunning passionfruit flower.....finally in my garden.

I've waited close to two years for this little beauty. I've missed my homegrown passionfruit. My poor vines have struggled to get going in our new garden. Possums liked to chew the new shoots and well, chickens liked to scratch and dogs unfortunately liked to lift legs. But surviving all that over such a long period of time they have truly flourished and now own the fence with their beautiful lush greenness. And now it seems we will soon be enjoying some sweet and tart seedy fruit from their round pods. Red or yellow, I am not sure.....I cannot remember which vine is which so a surprise package it will be.


With this gorgeous flower on my mind for the last few days, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the long road that has led to my pure and simple excitement today, and the beauty that is the satisfaction that comes at the end of a long wait or something equally undesirable yet necessary.

Balance. Everywhere there is balance.
The achievement at the completion of the journey.
The seesawing pendulum that sways between happiness and sadness; despair and joy; desire and satisfaction, hunger and satiation; hard work and reward or waiting and receiving.

Balance allows us to taste life. Without contrary experience there is no worthy experience...there is no sweet without bitter...only mundane.

“Evermore in the world
is this marvelous balance
of beauty and disgust,
magnificence and rats”
::: Ralph Waldo Emerson:::

This year I am going to aim to live more consciously within the balance of my life. Instead of fighting it perhaps I will just feel it.....instead of trying to control it maybe I will just look for it where it is......being mindful that my path to the future comes directly from the path of my past.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Leanne,
this is so beautiful. the photos compliment your words so well. that flower...it's a living mandala. and i love the textures in the second photo...the basket, the chicken wire (that's what we call it in texas), the green leaves.
exquisite. all of it.thank you so much.

Jules said...

well said...
beautiful images also

Madeline said...

What a lovely and inspiring post! The pics are beautiful, and that flower---Stunning!!

Sabrina said...

Your attitude is so inspiring! Balance is so hard to achieve- I aim for it every single day.

Oh what a beautiful passion flower!

Levin said...

well said!
i think your philosophy applies to many areas. i suffer from anxiety and once i stopped fighting it and just accepted it, life got much better. i was really meant to live in a small community - like the old days where everyone supported each other and your family was all around you and there wasn't so much traffic on the road (lol). i love the last sentence though - absolutely perfect!
l
x
ps did you get my email about the peaches?

Sherrin said...

Lovely post. So true, and well said. :o) (and YAY on the passionfruit!)

Ava Dodge said...

Oh and I meant to tell you how much I like your new header. It really captures the essence of summer.

Anonymous said...

well worth waiting for. I love passionfruit

Bird Bath said...

hooray for the blooming passionfruit. It's stunning.Will it be used to top a pavlova?(that's my favourite way to enjoy passionfruit.)
An inspiring and thoughful post.