Yin - Feminine Yang - Masculine
Rest Work
Cold Hot
Wet Dry
Dark Light
Spontaneous Disciplined
Passive Aggressive
Receiving Giving
Restoring Depleting
Night Day
Lunar Solar
Inner life Outer life
Intuition Analysis
Curved Linear
Water Stone
Cooperative Competitive
Body Mind
Beautiful Functional
Sperm Egg (yes, really!)
Slow food Fast food
Creativity Productivity
Natural world Built world (civilization)
Nurturing Protective
I am endlessly fascinated by the way each of us, regardless of gender, embodies these traits, at different times and in different circumstances. This movement from yin to yang and back again is where life happens. It is irresistible, insistent, and never still. It is in the motion of the tides and the cycles of the seasons. It is in the peaks and valleys of a sine wave. It is in the ones and zeroes that make up the alphabet of the machine language that runs our digital devices. It is in the exuberant embrace of new experience at the beginning of the day and in the peaceful slumber at the end of it. It is the "hum" in human. And in everything else.
So here we are - at that time of the year when we move from the quiet, gestational Feminine into the active, outwardly focused Masculine. It is a good time to pause, take a deep breath, and look forward. As we prepare to turn our clocks ahead tonight, and "spring forward" into yang-time, I leave you with this unusual, and delightful, perspective on the change of seasons from Vivian Swift:
"There is a long standing rumor that spring is the time of renewal, but that's only if you ignore the depressing clutter and din of the season. All that flowering and budding and birthing - the messy youthfulness of Spring actually verges on SQUALOR. Spring is too busy, too full of itself, too much like a 20-year-old to be the best time for reflection, re-grouping, and starting fresh. For that, you need December."
