Balance

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I like to play around with stones in Delycia’s garden, just setting them up in various ways to see the simple balancing acts they can do.

In these elder years of mine, I sometimes have problems with balance, and perhaps I like seeing stones balancing in simple, lovely stacks because it reminds me that our entire universe certainly knows how to keep its balance. If balancing is defined as a state of equilibrium where all forces are perfectly matched by equal opposing forces, then the universe is a master of the art of balancing. There are countless forces at work, but they all seem to offset each other perfectly. There are strong storms, but sunshine is just as strong. There’s sadness, but it’s always balanced, somewhere, somehow, and soon enough, by happiness. There’s sickness, but health enduringly flows onward all around it. There’s the sorrow of death everywhere we turn, but life is always there too, flourishing in its invincible way. For every dismal nightfall there’s a rousing sunrise. What all this means is that the universe is in perfect equilibrium, flawlessly poised, unassailably steady and stable. There is plenty of discord in the world, but if we look closely, we see that harmony always quickly neutralizes it with its own powerful pull. At the end of the day, all that really exists is perfectly balanced forces cancelling each other out, thereby maintaining the eternal symmetry of things. The universe, like these gracefully balancing stones, could unquestionably teach me a few things about keeping a strong, steady balance.

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