yin & yang of nature

Last night there was a tremendous storm, and huge hailstones were falling at least two centimetres in diameter, maybe an inch, and I'm not exaggerating. I was in awe at the power of this storm – quite scary in a way to be out in that, to be hit by these hailstones would hurt.

And seeing that storm, it reminded me of the power of nature. There was thunder, there was lightning, and these huge hailstones raining down. And yet this morning, the sun is out, the birds are singing, the white butterflies are still fluttering by, and I wonder: where did all these creatures shelter during that storm? One hailstone would easily have killed one of these birds, to say nothing of the butterflies and other insects. It is amazing, in a way, how much has survived this storm.

And this is what I am dwelling on just now as I remember the storm: both the destructive power of nature, its yang element, and also how well it survives, its durability, its yin aspect. Both of these aspects are here in nature, very present up here in the mountains. And it's this combination that makes life so amazing: this yielding, soft, yin, survivability; and the strength, the power of the yang aspect. Even if it is destructive, it has a beauty in it, that raw power.

And so this is what the storm, and the morning after the storm, has reminded me of: the yin and yang of nature. And these two aspects are also within each of us, they are also within me: the soft yielding feminine and the raw power of the masculine.

We should celebrate both. Life needs these two aspects.