Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Lessons Learned and More Balancing Acts





It's all about balance - which I'm desperately seeking at this point in my life. Family, work, life, me - how do we fit it all together into the same puzzle? The pendulum swings and boom, the tentative balance is disrupted. But maybe that's the point, that the balance has to always be upset in order for it to be re-calibrated, re-imagined. Balance seems at its center to be about flexibility and my life seems to require a great deal of it.

How about you? What does balance mean to you?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not a mother, but life balance is still such a huge issue.
Whether or not we're nurturing children, we all battle technology and our cultural attitudes toward time. Everything speeds up: We have the technological means to work and communicate 24/7, yet we're physiologically back in the hieroglyphic age.
To top it off, American culture values overachievement and rewards time impoverishment. Being busy is sort of like being rich or thin...you can never be too busy.
Hats off to parents who are willing to attempt the even more challenging task of balancing family, personal and work needs!

Lisa Trank said...

Thanks, Laurel - I was just hearing a bit of an interview with Diane Israel, whose documentary film "Beauty Mark," deals with what she qualifies as exercise bulimia and I think it is an appropriate metaphor for what you describe. We are such a consumer focused society, that the idea of balance is just not really supported.