Lesson 3: Temperance, Right thing at the Right time
What is the idea of “right” to you? What does it mean to be “right”. My father was a fan of saying and probably actually thinking that he was always “right”. While there is an arrogance to that, what he also said was that, if it turned out that he was wrong, he really wasn’t. He was still right based on the information he had at the time. Once he got new information and realized his previous choice, belief, idea etc. was not the best or right one, he would change his mind and again be right. So, he was never really wrong, right? While this logic is actually pretty arrogant, there is validity to it. We really are doing our best all of the time. Sometimes our best effort is pretty shitty work. That doesn’t mean we are not doing our best. It just means that our best isn’t that great right now.
In terms of Temperance, or doing right, how do we know? Like my dad, we can know because it is what we do. We know it is right for this moment because it is what we are doing in this moment. If we are trying to make the right decision, we can always be sure we will make the right one for the right reason because it will be the one we choose. It might not turn out the way we want it to turn out, but it will still be the right one. If I do something that does not turn out the way I wanted it, that doesn’t mean I can’t still use that experience for my growth and education. If I do use it to grow, I might not have been able to grow in that same way if I had made a different choice, so then the growth was the point of the choice, not the choice itself, and so it really did all turn out okay, or “right.”. So, you really can never make a mistake, if you remember both lesson one and lesson two. It is all exactly what it is meant to be. Use it. Let it go. Or don’t, but learn from it either way, and yes, then eventually you do need to let it go. 😉
So, temperance is easy. Do the right thing at the right time. Know that you always do that and only make a true mistake when you can’t learn from the choices you make, which you will eventually, hopefully also learn from. All of this is about looking at life in a balanced way. The angel in the image is balancing energy on two spinning spools. Her wings are powerful, but the balance is delicate. Repeat to yourself every day, “There is up and down, light and dark, positive and negative and none of that is either right or wrong or good or bad, they just are.” We are in balance remembering that all of those things are designed to come and go in our lives like our breath. Breathing is the same as temperance. Breathe in everything. Breathe out everything. All in the right time, right space, right life. It is all as it should be, already. Just breathe!
Namaste –