How It All Began

These are the first wild flowers I found this spring
in the Short Hills Provincial Park.

Spring! At long last.

Rebirth. Hope.

Creation.

Here is a lovely Chinese story that explains it all:

Let it be told of a time when there was nothing but chaos,

and that chaos was like a mist and full of emptiness.

Suddenly, into the midst of this mist came a great colourful light

and from this light all things that exist came to be.

The mist shook and separated,

that which was light rose up to form heaven and that which was heavy sank,

became solid and formed the earth.

Now from heaven and earth came forth strong forces

and these two forces combined to produce

yin and yang.

I actually had to hunt to find anything that wasn't yellow. 

Soon though, these delicate wild flowers will carpet the forest.

Picture yang like a dragon

- hot, fiery, male, full of energy.

Imagine yin as a cloud

- moist, cool, female, drifting slowly.

Each of these forces is full of great power.

Left alone they would destroy the world with their might

and chaos would return.

Together they balance each other and keep the world in harmony.

I love the play of shadows in this clearing.

So still and quiet.

This then is yin and yang

and from them came forth everything.

 

The sun is of yang and the moon, yin.

The four seasons,

winter, spring, summer and autumn

 and the five elements,

 water, earth, metal, fire and wood

 sprang from them.

 

So did all kinds of living creatures.

This trillium was growing on the Steve Bauer Trail.

Evidently it isn't against the law to pick our provincial flower.

But who would want to?  They are so beautiful and hard to find,

most people are content to let them be.

So there was the earth,

floating like a jellyfish on water.

But the earth was just a ball without features.

Then the forces of yin and yang created the giant figure P'an Ku,

the Ancient One.

P'an Ku, who never stopped growing every year of his great long life,

set to work to put the earth in order.

He dug the river valleys and piled up the mountains.

Over many thousands of years he shaped and created

the flow and folds of our earth.

I love this picture. It looks as if the trilliums are growing

between the toes of the tree.

But such work took its toll.

Even mighty P'an Ku could not escape death

and worn out by his struggle, he collapsed and died.

His body was so vast that when he fell to the ground

 his body became the five sacred mountains,

his hair the plants

and his blood the rivers.

From his sweat came the rain

and from the parasites living on his body

came forth

human beings. 

This is how it all began.

*

According to the Educational pages of the Hampshire Count Council,

http://erros@innovationslearning, the belief in the balancing forces of

yin and yang lies at the heart of

the Chinese philosophy and influences the way the Chinese people

 treat their environment.

They see the earth as a living being which

must be cared for properly and kept in order, so that the powerful

forces of yin and yang are kept in balance. 



Think of the BP oil spill, 911 and nuclear power plant accidents

as things that happen when the yang is unchecked.


Women have been learning to use the yin 

by speaking, by voting, by boycotting, by protesting,

 by organizing, by supporting, by representing. 



I believe the yin and the yang may at last be

 starting to move slowly towards a healthier balance.