The Tree of Death

What is the difference between

The Tree of Life

And the Tree of Death?

Certainly, the color,

And the structure.

The artist’s renderings

Differ in the projected sense

Of mood.

Just the names

Seem to push the idea

Of happiness and positivity

Versus decay, endings and gloom.

Yet, they are the Yin and the Yang.

One completes the other.

The white, the black,

With a small smudge of each

Within the other.

Yet,

And yet,

We desire Life!

Happiness! Love!

Abundance!

Every minute of every day!

Yet, having nothing but life, love, happiness and abundance

Would be a life of drabness.

Of no anticipation

Or gratitude

Or striving for something better.

Life would become a kind of death.

Death completes life

By giving the Yang to the Yin.

We know happiness

Only because of sadness.

We know love

Only because of hate or fear.

We appreciate abundance

Only when we have known lack.

So right now,

As you sit here reading this,

Give gratitude

For each and every aspect of your life

As it exists right now.

There is so much to be grateful for,

Including,

And especially,

That which you used to call bad

Before you read this.

Death is something to be grateful for.