Today’s blog is from Andrea Springer, one of our regular retreat presenters and blog contributors. Andrea is leading our Embracing Balance retreat Friday, May 3 through Sunday, May 5. If this blog resonates with you then you will love the retreat!
Life is a Teeter Totter
The image of a teeter totter keeps coming to mind. Fond childhood memories of the up and down, the freedom of the rise and the landing with feet touching the ground. And then, there is the opportunity to hover in the middle, the place of balance and harmony with the other side. It would be nice if life was like this, a level distribution of ups and downs with the assurance that our rise would be freedom and our landing would be soft and firm footed. But we know that is not reality. Often the rise and the fall are filled with fear, anxiety, and trepidation. The landings are a plunge that puts us on a body part that is not our feet!
While it might not look like that level teeter totter, we can find balance and harmony. The rise and fall are like our breathing. Just as the body needs to breathe, so too does the soul. This breathing is balance. Science teaches that we need to inhale and exhale while spirituality teaches us to hold the grief and the joy, the laughter and the tears, the clinging to and letting go. It is the work of a lifetime. Fortunately, we have the wisdom of those who have gone before us and those among us. I invite you to join me and others May 3-5 as we come to better understand balance, harmony and the spiritual practices that can guide our quest.