Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Yin Yang and Parenthood

Parenthood has been the dominant feature in my life for the last 10 years. In the early days of mothering my first daughter, a friend and I (whose daughter is the same age) discussed the changes these little people had wrought in our lives.

Gone were the days of sleeping in (sleeping at all?), staying out late with friends, quiet moments with our husbands, with ourselves, the relative freedom to come and go and we chose. Replacing this were these delightful, sometimes overwhelming bundles of so much sweetness, love, cuddles, sometimes tears, and often just downright fun silliness. 

To me this is such a good example of the waxing and waning of different cycles of our lives. If we think of Yang as daylight and Yin as darkness for this, example we can see that early Parenthood is Daylight (Yang) for sweet cuddly wonderfulness, childlike play, wonder, very full days and sometimes fuller nights, artwork everywhere (even walls), laundry, dishes and so much more. And early Parenthood is Darkness (Yin) for sleep, alone time, time with spouse, time for hobbies and other personal pursuits. 

But gradually this shifts back and we start to see more balance, more sleep, fewer diapers, more time on that project, less time tying shoes and wiping noses. And it what seems to some of us like the blink of an eye, our Yin and Yang are reversed. We're Yang on sleep, alone time, date nights and Yin for time with these small people who suddenly have lives of their own that include us less.

None of this is good or bad, there is richness and beauty in all of it, and ultimately, balance. It's sometimes comforting to look at balance over a long curve, not over the course of a day, or even a week, but just to recognize how it can happen over the course of our lifetime.

I think my friend Mark said it best regarding parenthood: "We'll be so glad when we're not crunching cheerios under our feet with each step, and we'll be so sad, when we're not crunching cheerios under our feet with each step."

Thank you for joining me this week. If you are enjoying this series on Yin Yang, please check back for more articles. You can also Like my Facebook page or Follow me on Twitter  and you will be notified when new articles are posted. 

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