Yin-Yang

I love this time of year. I worked in my garden this past weekend. Playing in the dirt, getting my hands and fingernails dirty is very therapeutic for me. As I work with nature I see how my nurturing enables the beauty, strength, and bounty of my flowers to come to life. It is so satisfying seeing your hard work come to fruition.

The same is true of my professional life. I nurture my clients as they step through the process from start to finish for their special occasion. I see the nervous, overwhelmed client grow into a beautiful, confident woman looking forward to their special day. Unlike my gardening, when working in my studio, I have to be very careful that there is not any dirt, smudges, dust, or anything else that can leave dirty marks on the gowns. I view this as the yin-yang of life.

Yin-yang is a Chinese philosophy. There are two fundamental principles, one negative, dark, passive, cold, wet, and feminine (yin) and the other positive, bright, active, dry, hot and masculine (yang). The interactions and balance of these forces, in people and nature, influence their behavior and fate.

Yin-yang transforms each other. Like an undertow in the ocean, every advance is complemented by a retreat, and every rise transforms into a fall. Thus, a seed will sprout from the earth and grow upwards towards the sky - an intrinsically yang movement. Then when it reaches its full height, it will begin to weaken, and eventually will fall back to the earth in decay - an intrinsically yin movement. Yin always contains the potential for yang, and yang for yin.

Yin-yang is not an actual substance or force, the way it might be conceived of in western terms. Instead, it is a universal way of describing the interactions and interrelations of the natural forces that do occur in the world. It applies as well to social constructions - value judgments like good and evil, rich and poor, honor and dishonor - yet it is often used in those contexts as a warning, since by its principles extreme good will turn to evil, extreme wealth to poverty, extreme honor to dishonor.


So, as I reflect on my gardening and my professional life as a designer and seamstress, I can appreciate the yin-yang. My roses are beautiful. They are big, bright, and smell wonderful. They grow in dirt; they have thorns. My gowns are also beautiful. Their environment is sterile at best.