Balancing Moments

A social gathering I attended yesterday evening reminded me, for one thing, of our need for balance.  Whether the hostess was motivated to invite a menagerie of friends and acquaintances for this fun time by her recent diagnosis of an unwelcome illness, I cannot say.  I can say that, by its very nature, the diagnosis has likely stolen some of Susan's emotional energy and that the prescribed treatment will perhaps take more, along with some physical energy, for a while.  As I reflect on the timing of yesterday's enlivening get-together, it seems just right, not only for Susan but also for her friends.

One of my primary takeaways from a recent reading of Robert A. Johnson's Owning Your Own Shadow, is the wisdom - the need, in fact - to keep the seesaw that is our life in balance.  I am able to imagine Susan standing at her fulcrum with one foot planted firmly in the certain and supportive community of friends and the other situated in the uncertainty of a journey she makes alone.  She may have had an inherent knowing of the need for this balance.

While the primary focus of Johnson's book is the need to acknowledge and include the shadow part of our psyche that we keep mostly hidden with the part of ourselves that we see and show to the world, he notes again and again that this integration of extremes applies to all things - and this  holding of two seeming opposites at the same time is possible.  If we go too far in one direction and lose sight of the other, we can "fall off the deep end," as we sometimes say.  We need balance:  time with folks and time alone; bursts of activity and pauses for stillness; serious business and frivolous play; roots and wings.  The list goes on.

The essence of life is built upon this principle, it seems:  light and dark, birth and death, sleep and awakeness ....  Who are we to think we can defy nature and work all the time or play all the time or do anything all the time - and continue to be healthy in all aspects of health?

When we are experiencing a high or a low, we would be wise to weave intentionally into our schedule some way of providing balance.  When we cannot do this for ourselves, perhaps those who care about us can do it for us.  It's a seemingly small matter, but it matters.  Whether the desire for yesterday's gathering was inherent or intentional, that time with friends helped to keep the seesaw in balance and will, no doubt, take its energy and support into the days ahead.