Sunday, January 18, 2009

Balance Schmalantz

I would like to acknowledge from the top that YES, my lovely friend of SheChanges, Lael (http://www.shechange.com/) I have stolen the name of our last circle gathering for this essay. I loved the sound and feel of it. I want to give credit also to the Fabulous women who shared their thoughts on this deep river of a subject. So Thank you one and all.

Yes, the feel of it. Say the whole thing a few times Balance- Schmalantz Schmalantz -Balance out loud. It’s how I feel when I think of the ways I might put all the parts of me into two scale pans; (from the Middle English and etymology of the word – as noun), and come out …..Balanced ( Here used now as a verb- and not just any verb – a transitive verb; or maybe it’s really a intransitive verb- to become balanced.)
What does that mean? The sum of emotions that run through my blood on any given day or even any given moment- keep the scales from sitting even. They are always tipped to one side or another. Does that mean I am out of Balance? No, I think not. Is my life out of balance – well, perhaps. Am I having fun with my life? Mostly!
Perhaps the question is do I feel like my life is in Equilibrium – What’s the difference you ask besides the ‘word’ well, according to Merriam-Webster:
equilibrium .1 a - state of intellectual or emotional balance, (oops there’s that word) poise b- a state of adjustment between opposing or divergent influences or elements
2 a state of balance between opposing forces or actions that is either static (as in a body acted on by forces whose resultant is zero) or dynamic (as in reversible chemical reaction when the rates of reaction in both directions are equal)
My feeling is that it is difficult to find balance or be in balance if we are alive and living a Life, we are creatures of Passion, (could be seen as chemical), we Love, we Cry, and once in a while we can love and hate something at the same time! For the most part it is my experience that if we are truly living our lives we are not flat line – I believe that is called dead!
We roller coaster some days, others we carry gently on. The very nature of our bodies holds us in some form of tension. We are in tension with our great Mother Earth – the forces of gravity. If there was balance there I think we might just float out into space. Our Lives require there be some tension. I’m not suggesting that tension is bad or good – it “just” IS. I would define that as being in equilibrium.
The choices we make to take care of ourselves vs. someone else’s needs. Some days it is most definitely not equal. It is again the nature of who and what we are. Some days its them – others it about ME! From my point of view –being a ripe youngster of 55. I am wondering if we might allow ourselves those moments of being not in balance, so that we can and do create moments of Equilibrium.
There is much that all of this original reading and dialogue has brought to mind, it will cause me to circle back round sometime in a thinner line – or a deep bright line. Time and my sense of being in my own tension and ‘aequi' state will be the deciding factor. I believe that for each of us that place is and will remain different, one's tolerance for things is at that moment what they can carry. It is not who or what they are. It is the space created between which we need to hold, allow, invite!
Today it is cold and snowy – it is Winter. Nature is in balance with our idea of what Winter is, in Maine. If I was in Hawaii with this snow I might wonder about how the weather became so out of balance.
Balance Schmalantz in the end perhaps it is all a matter of how we perceive the word. What is our understanding – and when we talk with another are they having the same understanding or experience of the word –words we are using? Might be worth a whole conversation itself. The fact that we speak the same language does not mean we understand the word the same. Can you imagine if it is a translation error? Or is that a transposition error?
Today I wish for you a sense of Equilibrium. Sad or Happy – may you know the sense of feeling at one with your self.

1 comment:

  1. Love the concept of equilibrium rather than balance, Rosemary . . . and that was my favorite circle thusfar!

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