The Question of Balance

The month of July was filled with traveling but empty of blog posts on my website. This perturbed me at first, but I have had to remind myself that as in all areas of life, even in the world of blogging, balance is important.

Too many posts can overwhelm the reader and too few can make them lose interest. The blogger has to find the right balance, and even then there are times when circumstances are such that no posts are in order too.

Two weeks of July were spent in South Africa and two in Canada. It was during my last weekend in Canada and whilst visiting Vancouver that the message of balance was clearly delivered to me yet again.

Walking through Stanley Park along the sea wall, we were suddenly confronted by a wonderful scene as we turned a corner. Stone sculptures set against a backdrop of water, formed a magnificent picture of beauty, stillness and balance.

The balanced stones appeared to defy gravity and filled me with awe. They seemed to whisper a tale of centredness and groundedness in the present moment, but at the same time the aura of stillness around them seemed to connect to other times and other places.

They were set in the nunc fluens, the Latin for “the flowing now”, the ongoing moments of time, but spoke of the nunc stans, the abiding now, a dimension beyond linear time where distinctions between past, present and future fall away.

Nearby a man was moving stones around and on the seawall was a guest book and prints of photos of the sculptures. Fascinated by the scene, that evening I googled “temporary balanced stones”, words I had seen written on something as we passed by.

The man is Kent Avery and he has been coming to this spot for 12 years to practice the art of stone balancing. Particulary amazing is that he comes back every week, as tides and wind ensure that the sculptures are not permanent. Kent Avery says of his art that it “really seems to bring something out in people. Many echo the yearning to be more balanced in their own lives.”

The sculptures take anything from five minutes to half an hour to complete and the whole process is done by feel.

Many of us are caught up in habits and rigid ways of doing things. The sculptures are a reminder that balance is found by being in tune with each moment as it arises. Balance requires openness to what is before us. What worked yesterday will not necessarily work today or in the future. What works for one child will not necessarily work for another. The way a task is completed at work is not a guarantee that the same principles can be applied to the next project at hand.

Balance holds the hand of mindfulness.

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Balance helps to establish a path of moderation, and therefore a path of wisdom.

Please take the time to watch this video of Kent Avery’s art:

Balance is not only a personal but also a collective struggle in a world crying out for love and compassion. If you wish you can also listen to “Balance” by The Moody Blues. The track is from their album “A Question of Balance”.

Related posts:

Mindfulness and Balance, posted exactly a year ago today. (Interesting!)

The Gathering.

Mindfulness and Balance

On a visit to the Gate Village this morning, I took a wrong turn in the Dubai International Financial Centre and soon found myself outside, underneath what is called The Gate, looking up towards the Emirates Towers. With temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius in Dubai at the moment, outside is not exactly the ideal place to be, but as things turned out, what awaited me there made my day.

Looking around me I was confronted by an exhibition of tightrope sculptures suspended between the buildings.

The effect was mindblowing. I have still not figured out how the actual placement of the sculptures on these ropes was achieved, but to see these figures poised in midair with the skyscrapers of Dubai in the background simply stopped time. All the hustle and bustle taking place in the buildings nearby formed a background contrast to the stillness, precision, presence, and pointed focus captured in the tightrope walkers. 

Each figure portrays being totally in the moment as tightrope walkers have to be. If balance is to be maintained, the tightrope walker cannot afford to be planning an outing while precariously sensing the placement of the next footing. S/he has to be mindful of every aspect of the body and the rope. Should another walker be on the rope this mindfulness needs to extend even further. Each step has to be given the attention it requires as a harmony of movement and interaction takes place. 

And so it is with mindfulness. Awareness of the present moment, on purpose and non-judgmentally, anchors one with the correct amount of balance in the life situation one finds oneself in. It provides the pause before the next step and thereby the ability to respond instead of simply react.

The sculptures were in various poses (please further pictures in this gallery) and perhaps some of you can identify more readily with the tightrope walker who is also juggling.

A multitude of daily tasks often need to be juggled if sanity is to maintained, but there again mindfulness provides the balance and the often much needed pause to decide on the priorities of the moment.

Not only the tightrope walker and the juggler, but also the trapeze artist has much to teach us about balance and mindfulness in both our inner and outer lives.

In his book, “Wounded Prophet. A portrait of Henri J.M. Nouwen”, Michael Ford states that Henri saw the trapeze of the “The Flying Radleighs” as “a symbol of the concentrated meditative life which offered, in the same instant, both a sense of temporal freedom and a glimpse of eternity”.  

When we reflect on this statement, we see that the trapeze act also illustrates true freedom in time, a life filled with presence.  However, Nouwen saw that in some inexplicable way, in that moment of being fully present to the present, we are given a glimpse into a world beyond the immediate. These are the moments when something breaks through and we realize there is more to life than meets the eye. 

Mindfulness requires practice, both in times set aside specifically to foster the practice and as one goes about one’s day.

Sometimes, five minutes might be all you can manage as you attempt, for example, to follow your breath.  Thoughts might overwhelm you and sidetrack you to such an extent that you feel you have fallen off the task at hand. That is okay. That is how it is, while it is and while it lasts.

Next time you begin again and gradually the practice flows out to all aspects of your life.

One of my favorite juggling youtube videos features Thomas Arthur (@thomasart).

His performance is one of perfect balance and fluidity of movement. It is an embodiment, in my opinion, of being totally in the moment.