It’s About Balance
“I am going to try to pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen.”
Anne Lamott
Spring officially begins here with the vernal (or spring) equinox, arriving this year on March 20 at 5:58 p.m. EST. At that time, the sun crosses the earth’s celestial equator (from an earth-centric view), and the Northern Hemisphere starts to tilt towards more light.
At the equinoxes, we are closest to balance between day and night than at any other time in the year. As I’ve read more about it though, I’ve learned that it’s not exact. Even Earth doesn’t get into perfect balance, but the balance that’s there is perfectly right and appropriate.
On my journey to reconnect with Nature, I’ve begun with an intention of becoming more present and aware. It’s a simple act, but rarely is it easy. Distractions abound, especially in our everyday lives. Just the pings and dings of our phones and computers can feel overwhelming at times. Have you ever noticed how seldom we encounter silence? Or peace?
As I write this, I sit in a coffee shop in which I and many others are tapping at devices. Pop music plays in the background, and a person nearby is watching a video on her phone with the volume turned up. Clinking mugs, human voices, the hum of the heating/cooling system. I am present to this basic cacophony of life, and it’s not exactly peaceful.
The arrival of the spring equinox and its momentary almost-balance before the turning to longer days has me thinking about that word, balance. It brings to my mind an image of vintage scales in which two different items are equal in weight causing the scales to hang evenly. And if I apply this image to my life, I tend to want equality between work and rest or solitude and togetherness. I’ve heard and said, “I need balance!” without realizing that the meaning includes a state of different elements being in appropriate or correct proportions.
Which gets me back to this coffee shop with its insistent sounds, while Spring is being ushered in just outside the window. I’ve sometimes demonized technology and blamed it for many ills. If I had a question, it was: “What can I stop using?” But this idea of balance gives me pause. There’s a time for everything. And I really have no wish to jettison computers, smartphones, or gurgling espresso machines. I ask instead: “What’s the appropriate proportion of these elements in my life with time spent outdoors, with friends and family, in solitude, as fully present as possible?” I have a sense Earth herself will tell me.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes…
Your deepest presence
Rumi
is in every small contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as birdwings.
…
