Hi there!
Okay....Please don't hate me for this one. I was inspired by the seemingly endless snow that the Northeast USA has been receiving, but who wants to be told that the way to just *appreciate* being pounded by one of the most brutal winters on record, is to *acknowledge* that it makes summer seem to be all the sweeter.....
It doesn't really help. Until, you realize......it does! Here's why.......
We do live in a world of duality.
And while that is a very spiritual concept, it is also true in the most ordinary way.
There literally can be *NO* up without down. No happy without sad. Wet without dry. Hot without cold.
And of course, this quote is also a metaphor; one that is pretty much applicable to all human experience! Think about it....if we have experienced loneliness, don't loving relationships seem all the more sweeter? If someone has been unemployed for a long time, landing a job can seems like so much more of a triumph. (I can identify with that one!) Recovering from illness or injury can make feeling healthy positively joyful.
An even deeper idea that is on the "inside" of this simple quote is this:
Like the seasons, all things change.....(similar to the expression, This Too Shall Pass)
Time truly does heal all wounds. Growth of any kind takes time. Seeds that are sown will blossom only in their season, and patience is possible in knowing that seasons always change.
Isn't it amazing how significant something that is seemingly so simple on the surface can be?
This quote is taken from John Steinbeck's book Travels With Charley: In Search Of America. Written when Steinbeck was 58, it is considered a classic travel memoir (although some critics believe it to be more fiction than memoir) In 1962, two years after writing Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his classic novel, The Grapes Of Wrath, a book he wrote in 1939.
Keep hanging on. Spring is really around the corner!
Have a beautiful week!
Harriet
