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.