The Need for Balanced Appreciation
A warm and light-filled welcome to you all,
This month, Caroline and I will focus on ‘balance’ as our theme, so I’ve chosen to write about the need for a balanced appreciation of both the positive and the negative - the light and the dark, if you will - when we seek wellbeing.
Unusually, I’d like to explain why balance matters by telling you a story. It’s a story I was told as a child, one I’ve always remembered.
Here it is:
A rich and selfish man is lying on his death bed. He knows it’s too late now, but he wishes he’d been a kinder, more generous individual—but only because he desperately hopes to go to heaven. Soon he drifts off into his last sleep on earth.
When he wakes, he realises he’s in the most sumptuous bedroom, with richly embroidered curtains and expensive furniture. Drawing back the curtains, he sees an idyll before him - perfect weather, lush vegetation.
At that moment he feels thirsty. Instantly, a decanter of expensive wine appears before him. A servant then brings in a platter of all his favourite foods, which he devours eagerly. Exactly as he finishes his meal, the servant reappears to clear things away and gently dab his face with a clean cloth. The man is thrilled, and addresses the servant: ‘Well, it looks like I made to heaven after all. All my wishes are instantly granted here.’
The servant nods, but looks at him rather surprised. ‘Yes, sir,’ he says. ‘All you wish for will always be given to you immediately, without anything bad ever happening and without any effort on your part. But sir, this is not heaven. This is hell.’
You may not think it so, but you would soon tire of total ease and perfection. It’s well known, for example, that in art, perfect symmetry soon bores us. We seek that little deviation, that bit of uncomfortable imperfection, to continue wanting to observe something.
So please, enjoy the light this month. But savour the darkness as well. It will make the dawn seem even more wonderful.
Until next time, my best wishes,
Linda