Do Wrongs Weigh More Than Rights?

Something happened recently that got me thinking. . .

A friend who sells a great item that they designed, has had hundreds and hundreds of unsolicited comments praising their work, their ingenuity and the value for money it provided. Then out of the blue one person, said that it wasn't worth the (already cheap) price.

Well it was laughed off and things moved on, until it came time to renew some advertising and I found my friend looking pensive, so I asked "what's wrong" only to learn they were thinking of reducing the price!

I was aghast!

Why? I exclaimed! - If anything, the price should be raised you are selling it much too cheaply!

They replied. . . but, remember that comment? That person said that they thought it wasn't worth the money.

Isn't it shocking that just one negative comment could outweigh all of those hundreds of positive ones!

The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow
as when you go looking for your joy. - Eudora Welty

It is a bit like life I thought, where often the negative seems to have more weight.

We are surrounded by beauty, by positives, by what is 'right', and yet the shadow of 'what's wrong' seems to haunt us and cast a huge shadow in proportion to its size.

Perhaps we are hard wired for our own safety, to magnify what may be wrong, to protect us.

In primitive times I can imagine that it would have been a necessity for survival. - Perhaps because we still have those instincts, we pin those fears onto everyday things - small things that don't warrant the amount of concern we show them. Which leads us to an imbalance on the scales on which we subconsciously measure things and causes the 'wrongs' to start to weigh more than the 'rights'.

What do you think?

Earth Day 2010 - Tulips in my Garden

Photos of Tulips taken in my garden today to celebrate Earth Day.

EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY!

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty." - John Muir

"What I know in my bones is that I forgot to take time to remember what I know. The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves." - Terry Tempest Williams

"Everything in the world has a hidden meaning ....Men, animals, trees, stars, they are all hieroglyphics. When you see them you do not understand them. You think they are really men, animals, trees, stars. It is only years later that you understand." - Nikos Kazantzakis

Photos: Tulips - Susannah Bec

From My Window - Watching The Day Leave

"Entrances to holiness are everywhere." - Bamidbar Rabba

I sat at my desk and through my window - I watched the day leave . . .

and the jackdaws come home to roost in the big old trees that are their home

. . . and the sun slid slowly down the sky as dusk arrived

. . . and day gave way to night.

"The earth's a door, if you press your ear against it." - David Mitchell

Natural Connections - Spring in my Garden

Growing up I wasn't connected to nature through a garden, we didn't have one! My connection came through regular weekly walks up a long dusty road, past green fields and swaying corn dotted with poppies, until we reached the dark dappled sactuary of a nearby woodland. I still remember walking out of the bright sunshine and smelling the wonderful damp cool smell, as my eyes adjusted to the dancing light inside. The ground was spongy beneath my feel and I always felt that it was a place where magic could happen. Curling fronds of rich green ferns grew huge and abundant as we traipsed through the undergrowth, climbing over fallen trees and marvelling at the strange and wonderful fungi growing there.

"Listen to all the teachers in the woods.
Watch the trees, the animals and all living things
- you'll learn more from them than from books."
- Joe Coyhis

So gardens weren't a natural habitat for me, I liked my nature wild and untamed. I wanted to be an observer, appreciative and touched by its splendour. So when in recent years I inherited two mature gardens that came with each new home, I struggled. At first I left it completely alone to do its thing, then realised that with a garden that just wasn't an option - I had to get involved, so I did. My garden functions with minimum intervention from me, I care take, rather than garden, just enough to keep a little order. . .I look after what was already there and new things are welcomed as long as they are not too bothered by the slugs and snails! We have lots of them too. :-)

So one beautiful thing that I had missed before getting involved with a garden, was that I had never seen natures cycle up close. I had never been able to gain comfort from that ceaseless round of death and rebirth, my heart had never been lifted by seeing a bare branch begin to bud, or green tips burrowing up through dark earth. Now that I live alongside my garden, I am so grateful to be able to observe the new life and the start of yet another cycle.

"Spring - An experience in immortality." - Henry D. Thoreau

"Spring comes: the flowers learn their colored shapes." - Maria Konopnicka

"A piece of the sky and a chunk of the earth lie lodged in the heart
of every human being." - Thomas Moore

Photos - Spring Springing in my garden yesterday!

April, Adventure and Magic!

"Magic is a sudden opening of the mind to the wonder of existence. It is a sense that there is much more to life than we usually recognize; that we do not have to be confined by the limited views that our family, our society, or our own habitual thoughts impose on us; that life contains many dimensions, depths, textures, and meanings extending far beyond our familiar beliefs and concepts." - John Welwood


Welcome April - another month and Spring is definitely springing despite the cold winds of the past few days.

Once bare earth in my garden is now bursting with new green life poking through the soil.
Unexpected and forgotten bulbs are popping up prompting me to think - did I plant that there! all ready to wow me with a riot of colour.

I made this image a while ago and thought it perfect to accompany this post - it is called Vitamin C
- just what is needed after a long cold Winter!

Absorb the colours and think of Sunshine!


"Adventure begins with you, personally. It is in the way you look at things. It is the mental stance you take as you face your day. It is finding magic in things. It is talking with people and discovering their inner goodness. It is the thrill of feeling a part of the life around you. The attitude of adventure will open things up for you. The world will become alive with new zest and meaning. You’ll become more aware of the beauty everywhere. Nothing will seem unimportant. Everything will be revealed as having pattern and purpose."
- Wilfred A. Peterson