I feel like "balance" is the advice I give most. It's also the advice I receive the most.
Do you know what your problem is? You're just trying to find the right balance. Be sure to balance all your roles. Look at your schedule, are you balanced? Watch out for extremes. Is your relationship balanced? What about your ratio of tooth brushing to flossing... balanced? It's so hard to find that perfect harmony, but once you do...
... it will be like freshly painted toes in creamy sand. An organized pencil drawer when you can't find the scissors. Like washed black granite counters without water streaks. Like a bubble bath. Like reading a good book and eating the perfect meal with a grapefruit sorbet palate cleanser to start.
Balance. It sounds so relaxing. So transcendent. Ahh... the joy of balance. It's so noble to strive for that type of peace in your life, for that kind of joy.
Right?
But then I remember taking gymnastics when I was eight. The balance beam was the most stressful of all. Why? Because perfect balance is unattainable. I don't care how easy the 5' 2'' Olympian makes it look. Don't try and tell me she's not stressed out of her mind trying to find the perfect balance-- a balance she knows will never be perfect. Get this, she'd fall if every neuron wasn't focused on balancing.
This post may sound like I'm stressed and bitter about trying to find the perfect balance and never quite achieving it. Don't be fooled. I'm not-- not stressed and not at all bitter. I'm not even trying to be balanced. I'm just living.
Just living. It's like red toes and sand. Like finding the scissors. Like black granite, bathtubs, and good books. And yes, it's like grapefruit sorbet.
I realized that I was never meant to be an Olympic gymnast and so I stopped practicing the balance beam. It's a decision that has naturally made me more balanced than I ever have been before.
