The Seeds Inside: Inspired by Yin and Yang

Charcoal on paper 

The Yin and Yang symbol is one I always interpreted as balance, the dots at the centers like the eyes of a storm. The symbol a representation of calmness, calm only reached through a kind of absolute harmony.

Digging deeper, I realized that the Yin/Yang symbol does not just contain balance, but also duality. Duality in the sense that a polar state can only be polar with its opposite, think day and night. 

While exploring the concept of Yin and Yang for today’s piece, I went to a book that has diligently waited on my family’s bookshelves. The Complete Encyclopedia of Signs & Symbols dives into the meaning of the shapes, 

The dark and the light parts of the symbol are directly opposed yet interlocking and mutually dependent; the two small spots in the symbol show that each opposing force contains a seed of the other.

Many moments we experience rely on the balance created by opposites: our sight is made possible by light and shadow interacting with each other. And perhaps we, as people, have seeds inside us that belong to one another. And to share these seeds perhaps we can we embrace our interacting polarities, our Yin and Yang.