It is always pure joy to remember my days teaching 3 -5 year olds, absolutely the best world in which to be. I hear their voices, and see their faces, expressions, and their gifts…still.
A common activity was to put one of the balance scales out with which they could experiment with various objects.
The scale of course balanced when exact objects were put on each side.
A challenge was seeing what it took to get multiple objects to balance one heavy one.
I thought about this yesterday after conversations and emails with friends that conveyed the heavy side, the weighing down, the imbalanced feelings, the longing to somehow lift the weight by finding resources outside of it.
It is easy to forget when taking in the headlines from around the world that along with, next to, or even feeling more all consuming in the moment is that almost every individual is carrying some kind of weight, of heaviness.
Heaviness sends us on a deep quest for balance, for something or for some things that nourish us, that carry us so we can find our way through. And when the weight of the collective is added to individual heaviness, even more so.
I become curious how moving toward balance might even help me/us serve it.
Only in at least getting close can we breathe more easily and move through.
I was struck in these moments yesterday with the reminder that what I carry is not what you carry or what the next person carries. I become more aware all the time that it is not a time for assumptions or judgments because with the exception of a few people, I see such a small piece of anyone else’s life.
At the end of one conversation I knew I needed to take some time to dip into balance. So I did.
Back to the scale.
Sometimes looking over my precious to me collection of books I put some titles on the near empty side. It’s a start. I skim the shelves and see so much reality on the their spines: Messy, Love is the Way, Permission to Feel, The Book of Soul, Being Mortal, Beauty, Let Your Life Speak, My Grandfather’s Blessing, The Spirit of a Woman, Writing Down Your Soul, All the Light We Cannot See, The Weight of Ink, Holy Disunity and the list goes on.
I realize my personal library sustains and brings me a measure of balance, even if just through titles.
Leaving the bookshelves I go to nature to see what it can add.
There I step for a moment into wonder, as I do over and over again, about the squirrels. Wonder and delight combined. Their agility. Their seemingly carefree lives. The known paths I see them travel over and over again…across the fence, up a tree, over the wires across the street, down the other side and then later, back again. How they love to chase. How they can walk straight down a tree. I add them and all of nature to the light side of the scale.
Books, squirrels, wonder, and delight in nature…I am beginning to feel a bit of balance, even if the scale shifts precariously now and then.
I continue adding to the light side until it brings the heavy side up and know that there are more resources than first come to mind. There are always more than first come to mind.
Of course there are the deeper things that bring balance…friends, spiritual sustenance and helping others…and yet sometimes going to the little things can make all the difference for that moment.
Ah, it makes me think of how light and dark balance each other out, too.
I know I can go to the well and dip and be given one thing at a time, perhaps in moments or perhaps over years, always going back for more. Balance can be quick but it also often takes time and trial and error.
It’s like watching the children figure out the same. They just can’t know or understand the metaphor yet. Someday they will
I believe there is always, always something or some things that move into our sight, hearing, feeling or knowing, or all of those, that grace the heavy sides and start the lifting process.
I also discover that some of what I thought was so heavy, not necessarily all, may in fact be of my own creation that I choose to keep and carry but that is for another scale of life experience.