EVIE'S YIN & YANG POEM for 2021

Many years ago I wrote these words to my friend Janice Carter Slater They have come back to haunt me as I received wishes for positive a new year . . . . . ‘Joy and pain in the same sweet boat . . . . try and remain . . remain afloat . .’ As I wish my family and friends a happy new year I wish you a year where we remember our deepest experiences have given rise to our happiest moments. In a world that worships the light and shuns the dark . . that promotes the positive and rejects the negative . . that fears a possible hell if one doesn’t deserve to get into heaven . . that believes there is only one God and he is the father of mankind . . that agree that human beings are superior to all other creatures . . that believes the summit greater than the valley I ask when did we begin to fear sadness, depression and death . . Could it be that we have suppressed our natural instincts to such a degree that the valve on a pressure cooker is fearful of release? Do we fear the uncontrolled rage that we may be carrying in the helplessness we have felt and feel in our inability to protect our loved ones from time immemorial. Have we forgotten . . . . that there would be no light without darkness? . . that there would be no positive without negative

. . that the fires in the belly of Mother Earth created the mountains . . that the monotheistic belief where a father does not need a mother to co-create leads to the misunderstanding that mankind’s position is above all other creatures and thereby he alienates himself to all other creatures the heights man reaches are measured by his depth when man first picked up a weapon to use against another man did he begin to fear a returning boomerang ? and yet attracted the karmic debt his fear created. . Embracing sadness is a reflection that one has been privileged enough to care and to feel loss . . . . and one is able to recognise that one has a heart capable of love . . Today I would write these words to Janice after fifty years of sharing a spiritual bond Dare to dive beneath a wave be alive . . . . yes . . be brave A deeper you of awe and wonder as you renew when you go under And rise again to breath the breath of those strong women unafraid to say yes . . .