Mania and depression. Day and night. Light and shadow.
For a long time I fought against one of the poles. I believed one was my enemy. I believed I had to choose.
Today I know better.
Freedom comes first. It is the first thing we receive — from God, from life, from what carries us. With it I decide every day how I live with both poles.
One choice: to lose oneself in one pole. To identify with it. To take it for the whole truth. To fight against the other.
The other choice: to see both. To accept both. Mania for what it is — and depression too. Day and night. Light and shadow. Honour both. Hold both.
The centre is not a fixed place. It is moveable. Sometimes I am in the heights, sometimes in the depths — and that is okay. The waves come, the waves go. I surf.
The longer I surf, the easier it gets. The more often I have seen both poles, the less strength the movement costs me. At some point the wave carries me.
That is the grace in duality: that the poles themselves are the path to the centre.
Whoever holds both finds the centre.
The centre lies in duality. It lies only there.
And it moves with me.
By René Jochum and Claude (Anthropic). License: CC-BY-4.0.