Posted on by Tenneson Woolf

Best of Times, Worst of Times

A Tale of Two Cities
1859
Charles Dickens

It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us,
we had nothing before us…

It all goes together, doesn’t it. Then, in the mid 1800s when Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities. Now, in all that swirls with soft delight, and with all that spears with sharp edge. And likely in every era, if given permission and invitation to see it all.

These days, as I encounter such reality, I recognize I’m trying to cultivate a few qualities and orientations that help bring relationship to such bests that go with such worsts. And then practice too, to create more life-giving ways to be in all of it. I’m leaning into these three things with some vigor.

  1. Discipline — It takes discipline to stay in the wholeness of such things. It takes discipline to not get sucked in to one side or the other of such polarity, of such denial. It takes discipline to cut through others in their polarities. It takes discipline to both see at 30,000 feet and to act on the ground.
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  2. Maturity — Maturity is in the discipline. Discipline is in the maturity. Kids get to see narrowly. Kids get to default to black and white description. Adolescents don’t get to, but they still do. It takes mature courage and mature community to evolve toward more awareness and more honest questions together.
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  3. Playfulness — Yes, this too. There is a certain playfulness, that keeps our nervous systems in cooperation. Playfulness within the absurdity. Playfulness within the seriousness. Playfulness as joy. Playfulness as commitment. Playfulness as invitation. Playfulness that can live in the worst and in the best.

I’m so glad that many of us are navigating such polarity. And finding wellness in what lives between and around the poles. It’s our job, perhaps our joy, to offer such honesty to what is hope, to what is despair, to what is the big picture, to what is in front of us right now. To such tales of the two (and more) cities within each of us.

On we go.

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