Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
–Albert Einstein
I often start my blogs with a quote that inspires me to write about a topic. Not this one. I had lunch recently with a friend who spent a year in Indonesia volunteering, working for good in the world. She shared over lunch that the Balinese believe in balance not perfection.
I’ve never been a real fan of the “don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good” line because it felt like settling. I’ve also never developed an attachment to perfection. And the belief in balance over perfection made me take a deeper breath. It felt good. It felt real. It felt like a solution in these tumultuous times.
Some people are feeling the tumult more than others. There are those living in deep fear for any number of reasons often associated with their job, their security, the security of those they love. That fear can be debilitating. Some of us are afraid of the changes that are coming to people in need – reductions in Medicaid (Oregon Health Plan), reduction in food stamps (SNAP), reductions in government food coming to Oregon, the loss of the Corporation for National Broadcasting that funds so many public television and public radio stations, the loss of bus routes in our community.
Some of us are working on solutions. Perfect isn’t in the picture. Can balance be in the picture? I think there are some answers in shifting to having conversations about balance.
Let me know if you want to talk about how we find balance these days. I do believe it’s part of the answer.
Onward.
