“If we keep everything in balance, we are in harmony with ourselves and we are at peace.” ~Native American saying
Where does balance come from? How long can we expect it to stay? Truly one of life’s primary challenges is finding a life balance of the things most important to us: Family, Career, Health and Friends. We: list, juggle, prioritize, plan, react, think, worry, re-plan, re-prioritize, decide, let go…. Can we teach balance? Or does it arrive as a gift after years of experiencing tremendous imbalance? An imbalance of too much of this______ and too little of that______. Fill in the blanks. Balance cannot be found on the outside. It just can’t. In each of us there is a personal calibration system that measures our well-being and harmony. Most have no idea it’s even there. Most never stop long enough, sit still long enough to hear it, to receive it. Really and truly, being alone and silent is a blessing and is an avenue, perhaps the only way, to experiencing and receiving balance and harmony.
Today I received a call from a student of mine who graduated in 2014. She’s been out of college for one year and is just now starting to feel and see that sometimes things just aren’t going to be fair. She felt upset that it appears a position, which was a promotion she felt ready for, was not even mentioned to her. She was at her receptionist job as she’s been for the past nine months and learned of the job opportunity as candidates starting to parade into the company. One after the other. In and out. Briefcases, suits, ties, high heels. And there she sat and wondered. Why not me? What about me? Did I do something wrong? A 22-year-old can really take a pretty big confidence hit with a first recognition that things don’t always go as you wish or plan or think they must. Things fall off kilter often for this age group. There is little balance and harmony.
I shared with L, as I’ll refer to my student here, that everything on the journey makes sense for some reason or another. At age 21/22 it’s so hard to see this. Young adults are impatient and need reassurance and to know it’ll be ok. Really, I suppose we all do. But for a young adult professional a quote like the one above may only make a tiny bit of impact. The lifelong challenge is to believe in and live in and practice in a state of balance! I recommended to L to focus on what she does have in her current opportunity – the positives. I also invited her to find her voice and ask her supervisor a few general questions about moving forward in the company. And, to not to take things too personally. Really it’s just so easy to translate things we see or hear and make that “thing” connect to us. And most times it just really isn’t.
Take the weekend and think a bit on it all… I shared with L. Perhaps with a few days gone by at the start of the next work week, I told her she’d have some distance from the disappointment and be better equipped to have an important conversation with her supervisor. Take time and sit still I offered. Just be. She was quiet on the other end of the phone. L thanked me for my time and said that she was so sorry to only call when things seemed down or when she needed help. I told her to never, ever apologize or give it a thought or worry. Because what I know now, that I didn’t at 22, is that where I am on my journey is where I am supposed to be and was always meant to be.
We do our best work when in harmony with the Universe. We honor the Great Spirit when we embrace and accept the weaving together of every person’s place in our tapestry. Believe that when you are the one thought of and called upon to be a buoy, it confirms the invisible thread connecting two people destined to meet and remain so even with time and distance standing between you. We offer a hand, a heart and a reminder to breathe and be still. And the balance and harmony soon follow…
~ a story yet to tell... 