The Green Boat by Mary Pipher PhD

Author:Mary Pipher, PhD [Pipher, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101624074
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2013-06-04T04:00:00+00:00

Balance

Almost everyone who is awake and conscientious right now struggles with hard choices about personal energy. People who do good work are in demand and they can easily become exhausted victims of their own kindness. Especially when we hope to avert the destruction of our planet, we can find ourselves working twenty-four/seven.

To be in balance we somehow must manage to care for ourselves and to nurture other living beings. It can mean finding the right mix of detachment versus engagement and of fun versus fervor. In Korea green tea is regarded as the perfect drink. It has all of nature’s flavors—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and pungent—in perfect balance. The balance of the tea has led to a philosophy that teaches: try to live a life that is not too arduous, not too comfortable, not too difficult, not too grandiose, and not too complicated.

When I was a girl, I worked in the office of my doctor mother. One day a teenage girl who glowed bright orange from head to foot came in to see her. While this patient was with my mother, the nurse and I speculated on what could have turned the girl orange. We thought of health problems or some kind of allergic reaction to skin cream. Neither of us had ever seen an orange-colored person.

At the end of the workday, I asked my mother what had caused the young girl’s orangeness. She laughed and said, “It’s a funny story.” She went on to explain that the girl had read that carrots would make her lose weight and be good for her vision. So, for several months, this conscientious girl had eaten several bags of carrots a day. The carotene had colored her orange. My mother said, “I told her carrots were healthy, but only in moderation and that everything, even the best foods, must be balanced by other foods. Healthiness is in the balance.”

A group at the Women’s Theological Center in Boston has a motto: “We must go slowly, there is not much time.” One day when I was a stress monkey, someone helped me out. At the grocery store, I was rushed and forgot to sign my check. When the cashier handed it back to me, I said, “This is what happens when I get in a hurry. It always slows me down.” The carryout man was Danny, who lived in a sheltered living situation and had some cognitive limitations. However, Danny had a high emotional IQ and an A-plus character. That day he looked at me, shook his head, and said, “When I hear people say they are in a hurry, that’s when I step in and tell them, ‘You are gonna be okay.’”

Balancing our passions enables us to live in ways that restore ourselves and the earth at the same time. This is a traumatic decade, and our emotional reactions to the news of the day will often be intense. Likewise, we may experience an incandescent commitment to helping the world. All of the fire

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