“Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.”
– Jack Kornfield

Balance. Such a simple word. Such a complex ideal.

I wonder sometimes if absolute balance is even possible. Actually, I seriously doubt it. Change is the one constant in life. Things happen. People come. People go. The job or the car I rely on stops being reliable. Changes in the lives of people around us impact us, influence us in ways we are unable to predict and those changes can affect us either positively or negatively regardless of how they were affected.

I end up feeling like a tightrope walker, over a sea of fire, in a big wind, while it’s raining cars. Yeah, balance can be difficult.

So I find myself vacillating between poles. Dancing on that wire. Shaky legs constantly finding that point where I remain upright and in control.

In yoga that sort of constant shifting is considered a good thing. Those microshifts, the shaky legs, the dancing on one foot, the burn in the leg or the back that makes me move just enough to keep the pose or to stretch just a little deeper, contribute to the overall benefit. They make my core stronger.

It’s not so different in life. The constant shifting from one end of the spectrum to the other. From hope to distress. Joy to sorrow. Between wisdom and love. From acceptance to rejectance and back again. Each change, each gain or loss forces me to never stop shifting ever so slightly, or so wildly that those around me might question my stability. And each of those microshifts makes my core stronger.

No, absolute balance probably isn’t possible, and that’s a good thing because it is the dance that makes me stronger.

Image by Parizad Shojaei.

Published by J M Greff

J M Greff is the rambling author, trucker philosopher, peace loving hippie, spiritual warrior, backpacking pantheist, wandering minstrel, and poet fool who created A Caravan of One for you. View all posts by J M Greff