| INSIGHT | COLUMNS & GUIDANCE Is Feng Shui Mickey Mouse? Wind & Water by Carole J. Hyder I was in Disneyworld in August, attending and speaking at the International Feng Shui Conference. After the conference, my husband joined me and we "did" Disneyworld for a few days. I hadn't been there for more than 20 years so I wanted to experience this American icon through my Feng Shui eyes, knowing it would reveal to me many of its secrets to its unmitigated success. Let me say, first of all, we did have a couple disadvantages going into this excursion. The temperature was nearly 100 degrees with humidity almost that high. Also, with August being a traditionally high attendance month, we were hardly alone. Nevertheless, under these conditions, we were optimistic we would still find the "magic" everywhere. And we did. We found smiling faces, helpful people, pruned shrubs, acres of weedless flowers, perfectly shaped trees, delightfully curving paths, lighting in the right spots, impeccably pressed uniforms. Some of the waitresses made us feel as though we were their new best friends. Everyone was helpful, ready to be of assistance. Everyone seemed to love their jobs. Everything was on time, sometimes a little bit early. We rode buses, trains, a boat and the monorail. They all arrived when they said they would; the attendants were SO glad we had come to ride with them. We were in heaven. All this attention and organization made the hot weather seem not so hot and the crowds not so over-bearing -- at least the first day. The second day, I made a casual comment that sometime I'd love to see one of these happy employees "lose it." What if they threw down their pruning shears, stomped off muttering something about never smiling again. Or what if the bus driver, after his happy explanation of where we were going and how long it would take to get there, would suddenly stop the bus, storm off on foot down the street, flinging his starched color-coordinated shirt on the side of the road. We chuckled about the possibilities of any of this happening. But I was starting to question how everyone could keep this happiness going. The third day, it seemed even more hot than ever. We walked out of our hotel first thing in the morning to find an over-exuberant man in his uniform (matching the color of the hotel scheme, of course), pruning the little shrubs by our door. It was already hot --what was he thinking? But he lifted a shiny, sweaty face in our direction and wished us a "good day." And he meant it. I could hardly respond. On our bus-ride to the next "magical" adventure, I adamantly questioned the reality of this place. "This isn't the real world," I announced. "What's the matter?" my husband asked in his gentle, quiet way. He was enjoying and savoring every moment of our vacation. "This is too fake for me. People aren't this friendly; people don't smile like this all the time. Trees don't grow like that elephant over there. Where are the weeds? Where's the balance?" After three days, I had encountered too much nice-ness. I couldn't take it all in anymore. Good Feng Shui creates balance. There wasn't any balance here in Disneyworld. It was ALL good. "Honey," my husband explained. "This is a vacation area. People WANT to have everything good and perfect. That's why they come here." I didn't buy that for a minute. It was clear to me that people come to Disneyworld, experience the exquisite workings of this place, go home and get depressed about their miserable lives. There were weeds at home; there were grumpy people at home; things break down at home. Coming to Disneyworld only emphasized this fact and could send the happy vacationers into a downward spiral of discouragement and despair. They needed balance, even on vacation. Balance is good Feng Shui. That's pretty much how I left Disneyworld. It felt fake to me. All those smiles looked unreal. I was desperate to find a weed -- just one. As we came home to our un-perfect house, I was glad I hadn't bought into the hype of Disneyworld perfection. Not long after returning, while I was out in our garden weeding, I had an epiphany. I had still not reconciled in my mind why Disneyworld threw me into such a state of anxiety. But while pruning one of our shrubs, it occurred to me that there really was balance in all of it. My husband was right. I didn't need to go to Disneyworld to compare my life with the one going on there. I needed to go there to experience something totally out of the ordinary, something I'd never experience in my life otherwise. The balance in all of it was incorporating the Tinkerbell magic, knowing it wasn't real, so that when I returned I could remember the magic in everything that was real. Duh. Rather than a day-to-day balance that I was expecting (like some crabby old waiter serving us cold food one evening to balance out the sugar-sweet bus driver we'd had in the morning), I saw there was a bigger balance -- one week of perfection balancing out 51 others of imperfection. My Feng Shui eyes were just a little off target. Oh well, I compensated by pruning our little shrub to resemble an elephant -- well, sort of. Carole J. Hyder has been a practicing Feng Shui consultant since 1992. She incorporates both Black Sect and Traditional Compass schools in her private consultations. She is founder of the Embracing Experience and Deepening Experience Associative Programs for those interested in being trained in Feng Shui. Carole is author of Wind and Water: Your Personal Feng Shui Journey. You can reach her at (612) 823-5093 or carole@carolehyder.com. Her website is www.carolehyder.com. Copyright © 2001 Carole J. Hyder |
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