I saw a great image in my head this morning of a teeter-totter.
The title on the image was Balance.
The image came as a friend shared:
she "waits for the other shoe to drop and looks for
that 10% of danger
in her world of 90% grateful joy."
And I saw the Balance teeter-totter.
In 5th and 6th grade, I sat in the center of the teeter-totter,
watching the other kids
take their turns, going up and down,
sometimes falling off on purpose
so the partner would bounce hard on their butt bones
or get thrown off...
and laugh.
I'd not been thrown, because I had a death grip on the bar,
but I did bang my bones to bruising.
So, I watched from the peaceful center,
watched the kids and their feelings,
always surprised or mad
like they hadn't been bumped the day before
or even during that morning's recess.
A second analogy:
Imagine watching a wind tornado, a wind eddy,
lift the fall leaves from the ground,
all the colors swirling.
Watching is beautiful, peaceful.
Being in the swirl...getting leaf flakes in your eyes,
breathing in the dirt,
the decreased vision =
less fun.
I enjoy watching - curious, a little fascinated,
but not being in it myself.
Last night, I got snarky with myself
and it was like that. Center of the ebby.
ooo
ouch
ugh
wait, I don't like this.
discomfort, discomfort!
BWEEP-BWEEP!
The teeter-totter diagram in my head
(pronounced tawter in Wisconsin)
had labels for the parts.
The seat on the right is the limbic brain,
the brain section at the back of human heads -
sometimes called monkey brain,
with all the recordings of life since we were babies.
The left seat is the frontal brain,
for higher thinking =
ego, decisions, language,
connection, creation,
planning and organizing.
What I saw was
a GOAL.
Sit,
centered,
and watch as
the limbic brings up it's "protective" fear,
the frontal answers with reason and facts...
Watch the two argue over what to believe
and stay centered in my soul,
unmoved by the chaos of
kids pushing in line to get their turn,
unmoved by
my own brain.
Today's Deep Breath: here's a practical juju nugget, a collective Next Best Decision.
Choose peace.
Brain offers: but they said _________.
Choose balance.
Brain says: I need to finish ________________
and _____________________.
Stay in the center and breathe.
That is all.