Monday, September 28, 2015

Finding Balance

          I have been thinking a lot about balance in the last couple of weeks. As I revealed in my last post, I am crazy busy, but I am at the point right now where I think I have found some sort of balance. I feel that I am steady. I am working so hard to not allow myself to stress about school or work or life because I just do not want stress in my life anymore. I want to be healthy and happy, which I am at the moment. However, I also understand that balance is precarious. I understand that something could happen tonight that could push me way off balance and most of the time, I really have no control. Sometimes I wonder if attempting to find balance is event the best thing to do. This morning while on facebook, I came across a blog post by one of my favorite bloggers, Glennon Doyle Melton, and she writes this about life (the path) and balance:
          "You will never find your perfect life 'balance' on the path for the same reason you will never find a unicorn on the path - because these things don't exist. Forget unicorns and balance. If you were perfectly balanced- you'd never have to take any ones hand to steady yourself, and that would be a tragedy. There is no solid ground on the path - so don't hold your breath till you find it. Breathe deeply and keep moving forward awkwardly. You can make it down the whole path imbalance and flailing. When you fall, give thanks for the opportunity to rest. While you're down, send love to every other path walker who's down with you at that moment. Then get back up. Or crawl. Crawling is encouraged and respected. Path running is fine, but crawling is much better. Crawlers travel with their eyes close to the ground - so they never miss an inch of the beautiful, rocky path. Crawlers get less glory but learn the most about the path's terrain." http://momastery.com/blog/2013/10/10/5-things-know-path/
          Glennon often writes in a way that I can closely identify. I love her entire post on 5 Things I Know About the Past. As avid readers of my blog know, I love path/journey/adventure metaphors. Reading this post right now is a little funny because I do think I am path running right now. Things in my life feel really good and like the 13.5 miles I ran yesterday, sometimes it can be hard physically and mentally to push through and stay positive, but the rewards and even the journey is really good and exciting. The endorphins are pretty sweet, as well as the relationships that are currently a part of my life. I want to enjoy this high. But I also want to be prepared for when I come down. I want to learn how to crawl and learn how to be okay with being awkward.
          So instead of trying to maintain this "balance" I think I have found, I want to focus on the healthy habits I am forming: running, eating healthy, sleeping 8 hours a night, setting aside specific study time, and most importantly building and maintaining positive relationships with some really good people. People who don't care that I am awkward. People who will get down on the ground and crawl with me. Especially as I know that winter is coming (metaphorically and in reality), I want these habits to ground me in the days, weeks, and months to come. I want to enjoy where I currently am, but not worry about maintaining this high because that is impossible. And perhaps by forgetting about balance I can learn to be present wherever I am and learn to take in the beauty all around me at all points on the path.
You will never find your perfect life “balance” on the path for the same reason you will never find a unicorn on the path – because these things don’t exist. Forget unicorns and balance. If you were perfectly balanced- you’d never have to take any ones hand to steady yourself, and that would be a tragedy. There is no solid ground on the path – so don’t hold your breath till you find it. Breathe deeply and keep moving forward awkwardly. You can make it down the whole path imbalanced and flailing. When you fall, give thanks for the opportunity to rest. While you’re down, send love to every other path walker who’s down with you at that moment. Then get back up. Or crawl. Crawling is encouraged and respected. Path running is fine, but crawling is much better. Crawlers travel with their eyes close to the ground – so they never miss an inch of the beautiful, rocky path. Crawlers get less glory but learn the most about the path’s terrain. - See more at: http://momastery.com/blog/2013/10/10/5-things-know-path/#sthash.Gl93VO69.dpuf
You will never find your perfect life “balance” on the path for the same reason you will never find a unicorn on the path – because these things don’t exist. Forget unicorns and balance. If you were perfectly balanced- you’d never have to take any ones hand to steady yourself, and that would be a tragedy. There is no solid ground on the path – so don’t hold your breath till you find it. Breathe deeply and keep moving forward awkwardly. You can make it down the whole path imbalanced and flailing. When you fall, give thanks for the opportunity to rest. While you’re down, send love to every other path walker who’s down with you at that moment. Then get back up. Or crawl. Crawling is encouraged and respected. Path running is fine, but crawling is much better. Crawlers travel with their eyes close to the ground – so they never miss an inch of the beautiful, rocky path. Crawlers get less glory but learn the most about the path’s terrain. - See more at: http://momastery.com/blog/2013/10/10/5-things-know-path/#sthash.Gl93VO69.dpuf
You will never find your perfect life “balance” on the path for the same reason you will never find a unicorn on the path – because these things don’t exist. Forget unicorns and balance. If you were perfectly balanced- you’d never have to take any ones hand to steady yourself, and that would be a tragedy. There is no solid ground on the path – so don’t hold your breath till you find it. Breathe deeply and keep moving forward awkwardly. You can make it down the whole path imbalanced and flailing. When you fall, give thanks for the opportunity to rest. While you’re down, send love to every other path walker who’s down with you at that moment. Then get back up. Or crawl. Crawling is encouraged and respected. Path running is fine, but crawling is much better. Crawlers travel with their eyes close to the ground – so they never miss an inch of the beautiful, rocky path. Crawlers get less glory but learn the most about the path’s terrain. - See more at: http://momastery.com/blog/2013/10/10/5-things-know-path/#sthash.Gl93VO69.dpuf

1 comment:

  1. simply beautiful. full of inspiration to live into where we are in life at the moment.

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