Ebb & Flow

I hate the modern conception of balance, especially the mythic work-life balance. “How can working moms bake cookies for this kids’ school, rock a career, keep an instagram-worthy house, get to the gym, and please their man in the bedroom like some Amazonian sex goddess?”

That’s not balance, that’s a nightmare resting on a knife's edge.

Balance need not feel like a zero sum game. It can be a 100% of what you need when you need it. It’s an active process that has more to do with ebb and flow than a static image of all the pieces precisely aligned just so, like some fragile house of cards ready to collapse as soon as someone slams the door too hard. Envision a circus juggler standing on a board on top of a ball. Her body never stops moving. She perpetually falls and catches herself alternating between pressure from the right and left legs. Sometimes she applies 100% of her force to her left leg to bring herself back to center, or vice versa. That’s how balance works.

At all times you bring your different strengths and skills to bear on whatever it is you want to bring into the world. Don’t feel bad about delving hard into one part of yourself for a time. Just feel into the moment for when it’s time to shift your weight the other direction to stay upright.

And don’t beat yourself up when you inevitably fall off. Nobody falls more than the one who has the courage to be up on the ball.

See the shadow reversal > RIGID