Up on the tightwire…

Several of my past blogs have touched on balance and change, so today’s musing is not a new topic for me. Guess I still haven’t learned my lesson since the universe persists in sending me reminders. I’ve been out of sorts for about two weeks now, fighting a vague malaise that keeps me from not only being as content as I’d like, but from finding that flow I mentioned last week and actually being productive. Various responsibilities have me juggling madly, and I find I’m so focused on keeping everything moving that I fail to appreciate the beauty of the patterns created as everything moves in synch. I’m out of balance.

As so often happens when I’m in the midst of a life lesson, a number of recent blogs and postings combined to remind me where I’m off-base. It started with a sobering TEDtalk by Robyn O’Brien on the fight for real food, moved into the writing venue with a commentary by Jody Hedlund on letting go of perfection, and culminated during an exchange on Google+. O’Brien and Hedlund offered variations of Voltaire’s warning not to make perfect the enemy of the good – something I need to remember every day. But more than that, such a philosophy leads to the elusive equilibrium I crave. Do the best I can, at whatever task is at hand, and move on to the next. Flow. Balance.

During the G+ discussion a friend started as a lament against sponsored Tweets (read: ads), I mourned my inability to find a workable social media balance in my life. Another commenter said, “There's no ‘right balance.’ That's like the whole myth of ‘worklife balance.’ The sooner you let go of this fruitless hope, the better.” As a Libra (if you believe that sort of thing) and one who wears a yin-yang necklace nearly every day, that irked. Balance as a myth? I wanted to respond indignantly, but the limitations of G+, while not as bad as the 140-character Twitter, prevent a reasoned debate. And as Hubby often reminds me, I needed to temper my emotion if I hoped to be persuasive. Pause, think, react according to the new situation, not something remotely similar from the murky past.

Reason and emotion. Balance.

So much easier said than done, but I can’t accept that finding balance is a myth. It takes awareness, and effort, and practice. Anything worthwhile does. Whether it be the hunt for healthy, organic foods, or the perfect (!) descriptive word, or the cost-benefit measure of social media, knowing when to strive and when to let go is key.

Such right effort keeps everything in balance.

DailyOm:

A career can coexist with the development of the soul
when we approach each with balance and determination.