I looked “balance” up in the dictionary and noticed the words that followed. There is balance beam, balance control, balanced diet, balanced fund, balanced line, balanced rudder, balanced sentence, balanced step, balanced ticket, balanced valve, balance lug, balance of nature, balance of payments, balance of power, balance of terror, and balance of trade.
This afternoon I found balance on the beach when my granddaughter pulled me from my desk and off we went for a barefooted stroll along the sandy beach of Lake Superior, straddling the line between hot granules of sand and cold waves of water. We detoured to the fallen logs along the way, balancing across the length of the trunk, occasionally pausing to find our own steady tree pose.
What I have become most curious about lately is the balance of my cultural choices with my biology. In other words, it seems I live in a culture that is at war with natural truths and I live that war out daily in my body/mind. How do I balance the cultural drive for excess with the realness of my biological needs? How do I meet cultural expectations without destroying my biological integrity?