Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Pondering My Universe

Balance. I once read or heard that balance in your life is more like keeping a pile of tennis balls on a tennis racket rather than juggling, because in juggling you are throwing and catching and only holding them for a short while where as keeping balls on a racket involves careful attention focused on each ball as they are all in your grasp.

I often think of this analogy but find it difficult to find a direct connection and application to my daily feelings of being overwhelmed. Perhaps it is because I am unable to contain all that I am trying to balance in neat little tennis balls. All the tasks that need completing, issues that need resolution, and activities I am involved in are not neat little spheres that I simply need to balance on a tennis racket (not like that is easy to begin with). All the things I need to balance are more like little terrors. They are alive, always finding ways to get more complicated, and do not like to hear "no." So really I am trying to balance a pile of monkeys on a tennis racket!

Yes, I like that. Monkeys or perhaps some creepy bugs too. All the aspects of my busy, overflowing life need to be put in their place...spheres. Spheres are bad enough anyway because they roll! If rolling were my only issue, rather than the current screeching, climbing, and monstrous behaviors of these things I try to accomplish, I think I could handle balancing it all on a tennis racket.