Balance

I have horrible balance. I think it has something to do with a fear of heights, at least that\’s what I tell myself. Sure, I am in a one-story house, but still …The alternatives — that I have too much water in my ear(s), there\’s one of those creepy bugs in my ear like on Star Trek, or I have a brain tumor of some sort that keeps me from being upright — are too monstrous to really consider too seriously.I suspect it\’s none of those terrible things because I don\’t fall down or anything. It\’s just that I struggle to balance on one leg at a time. So, I\’ve decided to incorporate balance exercises during my morning and afternoon exercise regimen.I discovered an interesting thing this afternoon: if I have a spot point around which nothing is moving, I do much better. I faced a corner and focused on one blue spot on this vase I have there; I didn\’t feel like I was going to tip until I turned my head too quickly and caught sight of the moving image on the Youtube channel I stream on the television all day. When I turned back to the vase and the blue spot, which were not moving, I stayed pretty steady on one foot.It even worked when I switched feet.As I stood there, stork-like, I thought about the idea of balance.That\’s life, isn\’t it?We balance work against family.We balance leisure against responsibility.We balance sleep against worry.We balance love against fear.Heck, we even balance our finances (having cash monies and how to make it when there are no cash monies).When things are moving too much, we get off-kilter with our balancing of whatever it is.But when we can find one spot, one thing to keep our eyes on, we can find balance as well:

• The look in our child\’s eyes helps balance work against family.
• Feeling the stress drain off our shoulders helps balance leisure against responsibility.
• Waking up feeling strong and ready to handle the next thing coming down the pike helps balance sleep against worry.
• Holding our beloved\’s face in our hands helps balance love against fear.
• Settling back to see the non-monetary wealth all round helps balance our thoughts about our finances, even when they aren\’t in the best of shape.

My plan is to increase the number of minutes during my exercise routines that I can remain balanced on each foot. I won\’t count the times that I stop because I get tired (because balancing also requires muscle use, in case you didn\’t know — it\’s easy to get weary until you build up some resistance!).Life is like that as well.Keep at it, one foot and one minute at a time.Balance will happen.