This idea came to me as I considered my own life relative to what often feels like conflicting priorities – those between my personal growth and spiritual evolution vs my very human needs and what sometimes feels like frivolous desires for security, entertainment and luxury. The Scarlet Macaw, which are prevalent around my home in Costa Rica, symbolize the fast-paced life of satisfaction fulfillment. They are always squawking loudly when in flight, as if perpetually unsatisfied. The grapes on the scale represent the needs for physical satisfaction (i.e., peeled grapes in ancient Rome). While the slow-moving turtle on the other hand, is content in his deliberate progress, as reflected by the balanced stones on his back.

The reality, I am discovering, is in finding the center point – or “The Middle Way” as in the Tao – which lies between these seemingly opposed goals. Honoring both the inner journey of the heart and soul, as well as the outer needs of the physical mind and body. This wisdom of this balanced existence without extremes is symbolized by the scale holding the stones and grapes, as well as the books upon which the turtle stands.