#67 - Yin and Yang Moments

First of all, I must fill you in...my oldest daughter was in a car accident yesterday, but thankfully she is okay. The young college girl who hit her was at fault and she had asked officials at the scene if she could approach Heather to apologize, and she did, tearfully. My daughter had sympathy for the young girl; perhaps she felt slightly maternal toward her because she remembers the chaos of being a dedicated college student with too many distractions.

Today, Heather was going to the doctor to make sure everything is okay. She told me, "Mom, I always hear about how people feel beat up after an accident, but you never realize how truthful this is until your body has been jerked around so violently."

Actually, our family knows the heart-ache and loss resulting from car accidents all too well. I can't even go into it, but all of us literally cringe and feel panic on the inside at the mention of a car accident. My daughter immediately called me after the accident, and I am so thankful. She knows I'm a prayer warrior on her behalf; it's an ingrained auto-response and sometimes a prayer can provide a salve of surrounding peace.

With that part of the day gone and everyone in the family notified and assured of Heather's well being, I start texting my youngest daughter. I have to share the texts because I found it to be so thrilling. As background information, Stefie has been on a fun trip through several southern states and as we were texting, she was enjoying her visit to Florida. To our family, Florida is a paradise worth visiting! Our texts go as follows:

From Stefie: 
"I now have the coolest story ever."

My response:
"Now this is not fair. You can't bait me like this with a text message and not tell me the entire story!"

From Stefie:
"We went jet-skiing and I fell off of the jet ski. A dolphin swam over to try to help me get back on. It took me a while, but the dolphin stuck around to make sure I was ok. We were so close to each other that we were making eye contact. She was about an inch away from my body."

My response:
"Wow! That is totally an amazing story! I am jealous! Were you terrified?"

From Stefie:
"Yeah! At first, I screamed 'DOLPHIN' and scrambled to get back on top of the jet-ski. But, I don't know why I was scared because it was obvious that she was there to help me. lol."

My response:
"I hope that a shark was not nearby."

From Stefie:
"No, just a ton of dolphins. Behind the dolphin that had swam over to me was at least five more waiting patiently for her to come back."

My response:
"Oh WOW, Ultra Wow! You got to REALLY swim with the dolphins. Good thing that you DID fall into the water!"

From Stefie:
"Yeah, they had a place where you could go swim with the dolphins, right near the place where we were jet-skiing, so they were used to people being in the water with them."

My response:
"Awesome. I can't believe you got to do this!"

From Stefie:
"I knowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww =]"

My response:
"Make sure to let God know how thankful you are for such blessings!"

My dolphin loving gal - Stefie.

******************************************

This morning, Deputy Dave and I discussed the vast difference in experiences that our daughters had gone through the previous day. Both had life changing moments, yet again.

My husband, sounding super hip, said, "Our lives are full of Yin and Yang moments ."

So very true. Life is full of light moments and dark moments. But, can we please have more of the light and pleasant "Yang" moments than the "Yin" dark and painful moments? I really like the Yang part of life. We all enjoy the Yang. But, I guess that is what Yin and Yang is all about...having balance.

Perhaps this is why super-stars are so terribly screwed up...they think they can BUY the Yang moments or they chase Yang experiences so fiercely that they no longer know the true difference between Yin and Yang. Their lives have absolutely no balance, therefore, their lives have shallow meaning.

One thing about Yin moments is...the dark Yin moments often add depth and wisdom to our lives. We learn the most during hard times. A struggle can teach more than can be imagined. There are some lessons we don't want, but once we go through them, we know we are made better for it.

Until now, I've never even written anything about Yin and Yang. In fact, I had to look up the spelling of them both before I posted this blog. Actually, it's not a life-shattering concept, Yin and Yang is simply a catchy phrase with ancient origins in Chinese philosophy, that's all. Simplicity.

Now, I can say that I speak Chinese. "Yin" and "Yang."

As for Yang moments, this morning was such fun as my niece and I went outside to do the morning chores together. First, I had a bit of work to do in the front yard from my palm tree that I had stripped the bark off of yesterday. There were big chunks of palm bark lying in a clump and I hauled the trash bin around to the front yard so I could clean up my mess. Then, I re-placed the trash bin back to its hiding place next to the garage.
Then, Shaye and I headed into the backyard to do our chicken duty.

We brought out the chicken feed and unlocked the coop so the chickens could race out into the yard, then we checked all 12 nests. Afterward, Shaye held the side panels open and stood clear so I could clean out the chicken poop. I'm becoming an expert on cleaning out the poop from the nests without wasting hay. With age, my job skills keep getting BETTER and BETTER.

Time passed and the Texas heat was intensifying, yet Shaye was not ready to go inside. Instead, she sat down with the chickens and began to hand-feed several of them.

Of course, I squat down and began to take pictures. Since  my niece and I were having a mad-hair morning, as usual, I felt like I was photographing "It." I kept having to remind her to push her hair aside so that I could see her beautiful face in the pictures, but I have sympathy...I've got a load-full of hair myself.  Maybe I should tap into my Native American spirit and nickname her, "Little Lotta-Hair."

Miss Speckles (Shelley Faye) is such a sweet chicken.

Finally, as 10:30am approached, I had to put my foot down, "Shaye, we've got to go inside or we might melt like the MM's do when they are in our hands."

Yes, in Texas, MM's do in your hands...the trick is...you must eat them FAST. That way, they can live up to their famous claim to melt in your mouth, not in your hands. Fast hand action from the hand to the mouth, that's the ticket.

And everyone knows...the faster you eat the MM's, the less time the calories have to add up.

By the way, I've got a craving for some MM's. If I had some in the house, I'd be having a YANG moment!