Thought for today:
"Being aware of the earth's beauty as well as the benefits of storm clouds is essential to the human experience; for without the presence of one, the other would never have purpose to exist.
There is no sense of sweetness without sourness, no happiness without sadness, no war without peace, no good without bad and no life without death. Such bitter/sweet correlations in our lives are in effect the essense of all experience; the barometer of our emotional wellbeing.
Recognition of life's opposites is the ideal educational supplement to more meaningful learning, just as preparation in all things makes better practiceof taking the best from all of one's experiences that unfold results in more favourable outcomes for future events.
Smell the beautiful flowers by all means, but become not intoxicated by their magnificence and splendour in isolation of the sun, rain, breeze, birds and bees above; for even sunflowers require the heaven's changing climate and nature's seasoning to thrive and grow ever stronger in their bed of wholesomeness.
Even the most tragic experience that can ever visit us like the death of a loved one, is an experience to be gained from once the grief process has been healthily negotiated.
Take for example a magnificient pair of angel oaks which had been planted in union one thousand and five hundred years ago and which stood in loving sentry on both sides of their South Carolina path on John's Island. Over hundreds of years they grew ever taller in each other's estimation and even more magnificent, until the day arrived when their upper branches joined hands and they become as one, truly wedded for all to see and admire.
Then, when their happiness was at its highest point, an earthquake shattered their peaceful existence, uprooting one of the pair and leaving the other bereft of its lifelong mate to continue standing there all alone. Thus the bruised and battered tree blew less lively in the breeze, but in time all the pats of love it received by people who came to shelter within its shade restored its faith in self and relivened hope in its future.
It decided to wither no more and waste away in idle despair. Instead, it took in all the oxygen that surrounded it, sucked up all the nourishment it could receive from the goodness of the earth in which it stood and then it spread its remaining roots ever deeper; reaching out its branches of welcome and new encounter ever wider. And in so doing, the surviver became stronger for all its tragic experience and loss of life and over the next thousand years, it grew ever more magnificent in its splendour as a consequence.
Thus is mirrored the life of all mankind and the successive generations in the family tree of human endeavour." William Forde: June 2nd, 2014
"Being aware of the earth's beauty as well as the benefits of storm clouds is essential to the human experience; for without the presence of one, the other would never have purpose to exist.
There is no sense of sweetness without sourness, no happiness without sadness, no war without peace, no good without bad and no life without death. Such bitter/sweet correlations in our lives are in effect the essense of all experience; the barometer of our emotional wellbeing.
Recognition of life's opposites is the ideal educational supplement to more meaningful learning, just as preparation in all things makes better practiceof taking the best from all of one's experiences that unfold results in more favourable outcomes for future events.
Smell the beautiful flowers by all means, but become not intoxicated by their magnificence and splendour in isolation of the sun, rain, breeze, birds and bees above; for even sunflowers require the heaven's changing climate and nature's seasoning to thrive and grow ever stronger in their bed of wholesomeness.
Even the most tragic experience that can ever visit us like the death of a loved one, is an experience to be gained from once the grief process has been healthily negotiated.
Take for example a magnificient pair of angel oaks which had been planted in union one thousand and five hundred years ago and which stood in loving sentry on both sides of their South Carolina path on John's Island. Over hundreds of years they grew ever taller in each other's estimation and even more magnificent, until the day arrived when their upper branches joined hands and they become as one, truly wedded for all to see and admire.
Then, when their happiness was at its highest point, an earthquake shattered their peaceful existence, uprooting one of the pair and leaving the other bereft of its lifelong mate to continue standing there all alone. Thus the bruised and battered tree blew less lively in the breeze, but in time all the pats of love it received by people who came to shelter within its shade restored its faith in self and relivened hope in its future.
It decided to wither no more and waste away in idle despair. Instead, it took in all the oxygen that surrounded it, sucked up all the nourishment it could receive from the goodness of the earth in which it stood and then it spread its remaining roots ever deeper; reaching out its branches of welcome and new encounter ever wider. And in so doing, the surviver became stronger for all its tragic experience and loss of life and over the next thousand years, it grew ever more magnificent in its splendour as a consequence.
Thus is mirrored the life of all mankind and the successive generations in the family tree of human endeavour." William Forde: June 2nd, 2014
