Guest Reflections on Balanced Stacking

I am stacking rocks, rather flat ones on top of each other and have been asked to think about this in terms of what is going on in my life, and how balance is affecting my life.

How many definitions do we have about balance? Is this term overused today when we talk about our lives and how we are living them?

I have decided to define balance first. I see it as a "state of equilibrium." I also feel it is an aesthetic or harmonious arrangement or relationship between aspects of our lives, or perhaps objects, such as rocks, flowers, clouds, or art.

Balance can relate to the distribution of things. Maybe the distribution of our attention or efforts. There is also the definition (very losely defined here) as the remainder after something has been taken away or removed, or perhaps what is left on our checking account after the bills are paid. Mathematically speaking the equation is balanced if both sides are equal. There is a "biological" balance or equilibrium.

The rocks have demonstrated some things about balance. I can stack only so many of them on top of each other before they start to topple. The more things we take on in our lives, the more fragile the "balance" of our lives becomes.

I chose the stones in order of size and stacked them accordingly. Sort of like chosing priorities. Or, perhaps like making a stronger foundation for the other rocks...or corresponding things in my life. - learner Suka Sloan, written during an exercise from Dionondehowa Widlife School