Spring Equinox - a Reflection on Balance

Equinox is the time between winter and summer solstice when time there is an almost equal balance of night and day. One question I know many of us grapple with, is how to live our lives in balance - in harmony with ourselves, with those around us and with the planet we inhabit.

 Sometimes I fear we are failing miserably at this task (as a human race on this planet) and other times I am blindsided by our exquisite vulnerability, the intensity of our interconnection and love, our shared griefs and passions.

Here are some of the balancing acts I grapple with in my daily life, I’m sure you could add plenty of your own to this list:

The balance of doing and being

of giving and receiving

of caution and abandonment

of sorrow and joy

 of patience and ambitious drive

of work and home life

of rest and activity

of being involved or giving space

of firm lines and compassionate listening

of acceptance and opposition

of freedom and restriction

of intellect and intuition

of listening and speaking

Where do you weigh up these lines? I weigh them in my midriff and in my heart. They come from experience, from intuition, from necessity, from watching others, from listening to the land around me. I’m interpreting spring equinox as a chance to reflect on the balance in my life – a particular challenge in this strange and challenging year where all the usual parameters have moved and our freedoms are restricted in so many ways.

 And yet in a world so out of balance in so many ways – where conditions for living and thriving vary so enormously, can we balance ourselves and be of service in the best way? Balancing ourselves can bring us into harmony within ourselves, balancing mind and body, cycles and rhythms, actions and expectations: in relation to the earth and in relation to our families, friends and colleagues.

 Being in balance ripples out and can be a still point in an ever-changing landscape.

 What do you need to be balanced in your life today? This week? This month?

Balance by Alice B Fogel

Balance is everything, is the only

way to hold on.

I've weighed the alternatives, the hold

as harbour: It isn't safe

to let go. But consider the hover,

choices made, the moment

between later and too late.

Hesitation is later, regret

too late. You can't keep turning

and turning, or expecting

to return. This earth

is not a wheel, it is a rock

that erodes, mountain by mountain.

And I have been too soft,

like sandstone, but there is a point

where I stand without a story,

immutable and moved, solid

as a breath in winter air.

I have seen my death and I know

it is my neighbour, my brother,

my keeper. In my life

I am going to keep trying

for the balance,

remembering the risks and the value

of extremes, and that experience

teaches the length of allowable lean;

that it is easier — and wiser —

to balance a stone as if on one toe

though it weigh a hundred pounds

 than to push it back against the curve

of its own world.

Alice B Fogel, "Balance" from Elemental.

 x x Siobhán