BALANCE: A SYMPHONY OF MOVEMENT
CONTEXT
A recent conversation with a friend has inspired me to reconsider balance. Balance as a theme is one I live inside, explore, and daily practice. Balance is a fundament of life. To bring you up to speed, we must consider that true balance is a movement (adaptation), not a goal. If held as something delicate or rigid, it will break.
The truest form of balance is a matter of continual adjustment: it’s a fluid interaction between points.
FEEL IT FOR YOURSELF
Imagine you are balanced on one foot atop a rock or root or log. Imagine you can feel the tiny bones + all the muscles in your foot. Witness their adjustments never-ending. Stand for just a moment, lost in wonder, at this symphony of movement in your foot.
Connect in your awareness to the body as a whole: feel it like a band of interaction from the foot up to the ankle, to the kneecap, to the hip; feel the way it reaches through the spine until, connecting to the neck, it holds the head.
Notice how to balance you must move. The body is a flow of interaction, it’s a song. True balance is not static, it’s alive + you can feel its life perfecting every stance.
TAKEN FROM AN EMAIL TO A FRIEND
The point is, true balance is a function of adaptation: a system of response that is appropriate to each new moment. In this way, Nature emerges through us in its own way, in response to Life itself. Here, of course, there is no restriction, no calculation, no measurement or way-of-knowing.
Here there is only showing up + a preparedness to meet whatever comes with honesty - with patience, trust, and grace. In this way, we are placed in the position of continual surprise as the mystery of You communicates + dances with the magic that is Life.
We may never know exactly how we will show up in any moment, only ever really that we must. The way that we 'show up' is like a meeting, interaction - it’s a miracle of movement like a dance.
In this way, we arrive at every moment like it’s new; we ourselves become made-new by each arrival.
A MOMENT OF RECOGNITION
I feel compelled to extend my deepest gratitude to John Perkins, who's subtle Art first introduced me to the depths of life + nuance in true Balance.
It was this very same Art that first led me to the greatest realizations of my life: realizations which continue to expand inside my being to this day.
THANK YOU, John (my dear friend + master-teacher), from the bottom of my heart, for all you've done. (For all you still do.)
I love + I respect you more than words (such small containers) can express.