We are good only because we have resisted
bad; honest because we choose not to lie. Shadows are dependent on the
existence of light. We enjoy a break
only when you have a busy work
schedule. Who would enjoy warmth if
there was no cold.
Indeed, we are what we are because the
opposite exists. Strike it down and we are no more. Does it then mean we allow
evil to prosper so that we can be good ? May be not.
Nature gives us a clue. When we plant
a sapling, it grows towards sunlight, it
is actually dependent on its roots, digging further into the darkness of the
earth. Both extremes are vital to its life. And when it has grown to its full
potential, it breaks open to sprout seeds, which again fall back to the ground.
Nature’s cycle of life.
Contrast and balance is essential to life.
We are good not because we have no bad within us, but because we have resisted
it and struck a balance that suits us. In one of TV programme, a woman advises her granddaughter not to diet
and to eat all, but ensure she stops just before she is full and to eat a
balanced diet. So, what is required is a space between starvation and
overeating and a balanced diet.
Similarly, one needs to balance all aspects
of life. From one extreme flows another. If only one has the patience and
farsightedness to envisage that. Shattered by extreme grief, parents of
seven-year old boy, who died of dengue, committed suicide. But we also know of parents who, under
similar unfortunate circumstances, found the meaning of life !
Do we feel unhappy and incomplete ? Maybe
it is because we haven’t struck a healthy balance in our life between work and
pleasure, duties and responsibilities, noise and silence, or sleep and waking.
We need to constantly assess which aspect of life needs more attention, because
this keeps changing. To live with equilibrium one needs to understand one’s
priorities and time accordingly to various aspects of everyday living. This
alone creates balance between opposites and makes for a healthy, happy life.
Balance in life as in good music, is
through continuity and smooth transition between contrasts – not in breaks. As
with music, life also can find balance from a composition of either chaos or of
peace.
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