Balance...

Balance, Yin and Yang, beauty in suffering.

We cannot know what it means to be free unless we have known what it means to be trapped. No joy without pain. A measure of good can only be known by an equal measure of evil. The amount we suffer is directly proportional the amount we have love. We have lost by what we have given.

Is it in only the wise or the insane who know this? We live in a society that insulates itself from danger and risk. We tell ourselves if we are safe, we will be happy. Yet, we have raised a generation of children who are afraid to leave home or make decisions for themselves. We are seeing a whole generation of children stay home with their parents until their late twenties, not willing to risk financial burden.

There are those of us who are like the caged lion born in the zoo, pacing his enclosure, longing for the open plain where he can run. He has never known the open skies of the Serengeti, but his instinct tells him something is amiss with his environment. There those who feel as though they are in a cage, but they cannot define the boundaries. While some can see the cage, but dare not step through the gate left open, the world beyond is frightening and dangerous. Yet, we that feel the urge to tear down the walls and emancipate ourselves from our own shackles must know it is our birthright to run free.

It is up to each of us to define the life we live. It is easier to believe forces outside of our control define us and our lives, but we always have the ability to choose. With each choice comes a consequence. However, it is not for us to judge each other's choices. Should we choose to live in the safety and comfort of walls, then this is the experience we have chosen for ourselves and it should be celebrated. Should we choose a life of experience and adventure, defying the conventional, then that is the path we have chosen for ourselves and it should be celebrated.

It is the dichotomy of desire that creates the cage and the shackles, the desire to experience a thing, only to make choices which bring us further away from our goals. The cage that so many of us live in, is the mistaken belief we must follow the norm, the status quo. When we learn to believe there is no alternative, that is when we have become the caged lion. When we have chosen to live the status quo, we have built a life for ourselves and can experience it fully.