Equinox/balance

I love fall. Cool nights, crisp, brilliant days where the sun in the coloured leaves creates a vibrant contrast against the blue skies. The days are growing shorter, and we are approaching the autumnal equinox where the days and nights are of equal length. The equinox is the fulcrum on which the seasons balance. It is the balance point between dark and light, between summer and winter. Yet it's only a moment on a continuum...so elusive, so fleeting. Balance has become such a buzzword in our society. Finding the work/life balance, balance this, balance that. Blah blah blah. What does it really mean? Is there a magic formula where activity (a) gets x%, and activity (b) gets y%, and all will be well? Uh...no. Now this sucks if you're anything at all like me. I admit it - I'm one of those people who fantastizes about one day "getting it all together." I'll find the perfect balance and live happily ever after. The older I get, the more I realize that this is just as elusive as the equinox. "Perfect" balance doesn't exist except for the briefest moments in time. Unless you are in stasis, balance requires constant adjustment. Constant refinement. Constant discernment. It requires mindfulness. I would hazard a guess that going on auto-pilot rarely results in balance. It might result in achievement, but not balance.

Something in a state of perfect balance is completely still. A rock balanced perfectly on another rock cannot move lest it break out of that perfect state.

Life is far from still. So perhaps we need to redefine what "balance" really means.