Balance and the autumnal equinox

I thought about balance a lot in the days leading up to this week’s autumnal equinox, because we all seem to be doing more than our fair share of that these days.

In the midst of this infernal pandemic, we continue to balance physical health versus mental health and we try to make the best decisions we can for ourselves, our families, our communities and our world based on the information we have.

We try to eat balanced diets, maintain a healthy and honorable work/life balance, balance our budgets, our relationships and our time.

It isn’t easy.

We only have those equinoxes, two days a year in which we achieve a perfect balance of night and day, to observe because Earth spins on a tilted axis.

Maybe we humans do too. I think I do.

My tilted axis leads me to some beautiful moments when I stop spinning for a minute or two and look around. It also leads me to trip every now and then.

I once face planted on an early morning jog in front of a bunch of cars waiting for a train. I jumped up so quickly to prove to everyone I was just fine, that I never even noticed I had injured my arm until a couple of miles later when I stopped for a light and realized I had been bleeding all over my shirt. It didn’t hurt but it did leave a scar and I wonder how often that happens in life too.

Night will be just a little longer each day forward from now until March 20.

Let’s all try to be each other’s fulcrum as we make our way through.