on Balance

We all seem to be looking for it… but do we even know what it is?

The word ‘balance’ seems to be everywhere - we talk about it in spiritual communities, we talk about it in terms of our professional and personal spheres, we talk about it in terms of eating, exercising, friends, etc. And often times it seems to point to some ephemeral point of arrival. A moment of equalibirum that we seek, and if we’re lucky enough to find it, we should then hold on and do whatever it takes to not let it slip away.

Even just writing that I feel it in my body: the judgement of something being ‘wrong’ if it’s not balanced. The feelings of failure that I can’t ever seem to find it. The seeking and grasping and trying to freeze the world around one moment in time. I doesn’t feel very good.

What I am coming to learn more deeply is that balance is not an arrival, but rather a way of being. And it means we have access to all our resources, tools, and states at any given moment. It’s being embodied enough and practiced enough in deep listening to be able to respond in present time with what is appropriate. Sometimes it may be anger, sometimes sadness, sometimes rest, sometimes action, sometimes desire, sometimes gratitude…and all the millions of other potential responses we have in our service.

And in each season of our lives, our needs will change. Our priorities will shift and settle out into different patterns. Our ideas of who we are and where we want to be may become too small and we may need to shed them and be willing to grow in another direction.

So ‘balance’ then is not a small tight rope we walk but rather an inclusive and radical accepting of ourselves and our wholeness so that we can surf the currents of life with feet down, head up, and heart open.