Tag: balance

The fourteenth day = detox half-way mark…….

It’s after midnight. I’m a little tipsy. What happened to my detox?

As I’ve mentioned in my last post, I “fell off the horse” by no fault of my own – the 3rd ankle sprain in three weeks justified a decafe coffee, a small cheat which turned to complete failure when they brought me a real one. Since this day it has become easy to fall off the horse – again, and again.

Oh well.

A new goal for February… To find BALANCE. Balanced habits that last. The occasional drink without getting drunk. The occasional espresso without getting addicted. A piece of chocolate without demolishing the block. These new goals combined with my “stand on one foot with eyes closed” ankle exercises, led me to think that peace comes from balance – balance within ourselves, and within our environment. So when my friend said to me that “balance doesn’t exist”, some interesting conversations and deep contemplations were the result.

“Not anywhere in the universe. Or in nature. It’s through adversity and hardship that everything becomes stronger. You will find balance – only when you are dead…”

I suppose in some ways he is right. The evolution of plants and animals and us comes down to survival of the fittest. Being the fittest means pushing oneself to the limits, adapting to adversities – moments that are not exactly examples of balance.

Balance. Harmony. Peace.

Find it first within yourself, then you fill find it in the world.

Heaven, enlightenment, rejoining the oneness, becoming one with “God”.

… Reality or fantasy? Neither or both?

“What about the sun and the moon and the tides?” I ask. “The balance exists. In nature.”

I disagree with my friend. I think balance is more than possible. In the big scheme of things balance is inevitable.

We all know that what goes up must come down. BUT… What goes up is not balanced out until it comes down. Neither the moment of ascension nor the moment of descension are moments of balance. Balance isn’t found in the moment. It’s found when viewed as a whole.

When the universe is out of balance life finds a new balance, or it finds itself extinct. My friend is right in saying that it is the hard times and moments of disharmony that make us (or plants or animals) grow stronger, but in the end this will bring us to a new equilibrium. A new harmony.

In the end balance will prevail – to the loss or advantage of humankind. The universal expansion will eventually lead to a universal compression. Creativity is eventually met with destruction. If we destroy our planet it will eventually destroy us. Obviously this isn’t very encouraging. But it is reality. The forces of “good” versus the forces of “evil” represent the duality of everything we know. No moment is balanced until viewed within it’s whole.

And so, at 130am on a Saturday night, as I plan to work on the last chapter of my book until my eyes can no longer stay open, or until my first full draft is complete – I have decided that while balance is good, creativity is better. The maximisation of the creative potential of this moment is temporal. Once potential is achieved, new potentials are created. But even if just for the moment, it’s worth it. The balance will arrive eventually so you have to enjoy the process.

Maybe it was the few drinks I had before writing this but it seems like this rant is has gone full-circle. What does this mean for my detox? And my new goals of balanced diet and lifestyle?

Balance is like truth – you might never reach it but it’s still a worthwhile pursuit.

To balance out my December and January habits I think it’s a good idea to avoid alcohol and coffee and chocolate at least for a little bit longer. And I do hope some lasting balanced habits result. But, as I write my book’s last chapter about Rio’s Carnaval, should I desire a cachaca and pineapple – in the name of creativity I will have one. BALANCE. Hmmm…

So in sum, I’ve failed on three of the first fourteen days of February. See if I do better in the fourteen to come…