As he kept a half dozen colored balls moving through the air, the juggler told his class of 6, 7 and 8 year old aspiring circus clowns and jugglers, “It’s all about balance; concentration and balance. You can do anything you want to do if you remember to concentrate and keep your balance.” “Wow! I can do that!” they all said eagerly. And so it is.
Now I ask you to recall your aspiring self at 6, 7 or 8 years old. Did you aspire to keeping 4 or 5 balls flying in the air skillfully at any given time? Or did you tell your family and friends, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a loser, a no account, a quitter.” More likely your young self said “When I grow up, I’m going to be the best -------------.” And you meant it, and so did I. What a great aspiration to carry us through school and on into a career or growing a family of our own. And to keep on going being the best at our chosen "bestness." Our world, our communities, our families need us to be our best, to show up with hope and enthusiasm and commitment. That’s the concentration part.
And what about the balance? The juggler said we need both, concentration and balance. Sometimes the concentration can lead us to neglect the balance. We have important work to do, people counting on us, just one more project almost completed, a few more meetings, another idea stirring in the background. Yes, we missed our daughter’s spelling contest, our son’s football game, our father’s birthday, our neighborhood clean up day. But there will always be another one. As soon as we finish these few tasks, then we will take a break.
I confess to doing too much and having to learn and learn again to find a balance. If you are checking in on my weekly posts you have noticed that weekly has recently become, well, every other week, mostly. Partly, I feel guilty about that, as overachievers tend to do. And, partly, I’m congratulating myself for remembering the balance. Sometimes there's the garden to weed, my grandson's soccer game, my granddaughter's high school talent show, my good friend who needs to talk because her mother was just hospitalized. The tasks will get done, eventually. Or maybe not. It will be just fine. And nobody will die if I can't do it all. I'm doing my best!
I offer you the woman with the burden basket on the poems page. May she be your friend as she is mine.
Now I ask you to recall your aspiring self at 6, 7 or 8 years old. Did you aspire to keeping 4 or 5 balls flying in the air skillfully at any given time? Or did you tell your family and friends, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a loser, a no account, a quitter.” More likely your young self said “When I grow up, I’m going to be the best -------------.” And you meant it, and so did I. What a great aspiration to carry us through school and on into a career or growing a family of our own. And to keep on going being the best at our chosen "bestness." Our world, our communities, our families need us to be our best, to show up with hope and enthusiasm and commitment. That’s the concentration part.
And what about the balance? The juggler said we need both, concentration and balance. Sometimes the concentration can lead us to neglect the balance. We have important work to do, people counting on us, just one more project almost completed, a few more meetings, another idea stirring in the background. Yes, we missed our daughter’s spelling contest, our son’s football game, our father’s birthday, our neighborhood clean up day. But there will always be another one. As soon as we finish these few tasks, then we will take a break.
I confess to doing too much and having to learn and learn again to find a balance. If you are checking in on my weekly posts you have noticed that weekly has recently become, well, every other week, mostly. Partly, I feel guilty about that, as overachievers tend to do. And, partly, I’m congratulating myself for remembering the balance. Sometimes there's the garden to weed, my grandson's soccer game, my granddaughter's high school talent show, my good friend who needs to talk because her mother was just hospitalized. The tasks will get done, eventually. Or maybe not. It will be just fine. And nobody will die if I can't do it all. I'm doing my best!
I offer you the woman with the burden basket on the poems page. May she be your friend as she is mine.
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