As I was preparing to write this piece I scene came to my mind of Jesus on a surfboard. This was surprising - to say the least. I am not in the habit of imagining Jesus in such a strange setting or any settings for that matter. However, this picture paints many words that could be written about balance. Stay with me a moment as I try to describe the picture. There is Jesus standing on the surfboard, one foot in front of the other, arms and hands outstretched. There is the wave behind him, curling in that beautiful way they do with the white cap and blue water. As the wave moves forward Jesus moves with the wave. He bends and crouches, stands and shifts his balance, moves his arms and hands, even his fingers and head. He shifts his weight changing direction and speed. He changes feet position and where his eyes are gazing. He is intent, focused, alive and at one with the wave. He of course rides the wave beautifully and skilfully into shore, timing his dismount perfectly. Can you feel those movements in your own body? I can - a little. Of course Jesus never rode a surfboard. This is a metaphor 😊 The ocean and waves are life. The surfboard is this moment. Jesus is the guy who shows us how it’s done and the core skill is balance. To navigate life, move forward and not continually get dunked, fall off and hurt ourselves or anyone else, we need the ability to stay balanced. It is a skill that needs to be applied to every area of our lives. I am obviously writing from a spiritual or religious perspective but balance is important in every area of life. From politics to ecology to dance to relationships to bodily health to riding a bike and kicking a football and everything else I can think of balance is key. Even the breath we take is a bodily mechanism reliant on the movement of air across a balance point. The body, the beautiful, miraculous gift we all have, is always seeking balance. The medical word is homeostasis which is not a static reality but a dynamic flow of the various systems of the body communicating with each other, fine-tuning and adjusting in every moment so that optimal health is maintained. A good way to describe our culture, our western way of life, is that it is critically unbalanced. Frighteningly this imbalance is threatening not just our own health but the health of earths ecology and the prospect of lasting peace between nations and peoples. Our way of life is so unbalanced that we do not even see how far we have allowed ourselves to tip dangerously out of alignment. Just think of all the ways we put unnecessary pressure on our bodies, on our daily lives or on our relationships and how we and others are put off balance. There are our habits and addictions - workaholism being one of the craziest yet - that consume our attention and energies; rampart, excessive consumerism and gross materialism; the objectification of the human body and the pornification of mainstream culture; the incessant cacophony of canned noise in every public space; the packaging and marketing of ‘experience’ and religious faith; the ex-carnated surreal world of digitally mediated engagement. We are tossed and thrown about by extreme waves and influences and it seems to me at least that we struggle to maintain our equilibrium. Maggie Ross in her book Silence: A Users Handbook says that “life hangs in the balance…..the choice for silence or noise, for carefulness or carelessness, is ours in every moment” (Darton, Longman & Todd 2014. p11). Ross’ work focuses on what she calls the work of silence and how it counterbalances the cacophony of our self-conscious mind and the world we inhabit. Her point about choice is applicable to the choices we can make each moment and the value we may place on balance and equilibrium. We do have a choice. However, making that choice and then putting into practise the habits and actions that will foster balance is not easy. Wanting things easy is actually a form of imbalance because the midpoint of effective living is a careful mix of effort and rest. That is if by ‘effective living’ we mean a life that is joy filled, abundant and radiant, a blessing for others and self. Despite the challenge it seems to me that choosing balance is the only option. The how of this is really the heart of the matter. Come with me back to Jesus on the surfboard….. If you don’t have any particularly religious persuasion please bear with me as I mention some aspects of Jesus life that point to a life lived in balance. There are other key religious figures I could point to but Jesus is the one I have studied the most and the one who speaks most clearly to me. If you take even a brief look at the four gospels you find a portrayal of Jesus the man as someone who walked an effective line between solitude and public engagement, silence and speech, reflection and action, feeling and thought, mind and heart. The theological words we use to describe this balance are of necessity paradoxical - he is both divine and human, God-with-us, incarnated. Even the central symbol of Christianity, the cross, is a pointer to balance. The vertical line joins heaven and earth. The horizontal line spreads this line outwards and beyond the centre. In the life of Jesus we see someone who was completely centred in God and completely able to give up himself in love in each moment. It is in each moment that we have the choice to come back to centre, the ground of our being. In each moment we can choose to be present, ‘in our bodies’, listening attentively to what is, not what we want, assume or imagine is real. We can quieten down our racing minds and with gentleness gaze at the other - the other person or any other part of creation. We can pull back from that which takes us out of life and wait for the movement of the spirit that leads us towards a better choice. We can wait. We can let go. We can ungrasp. How extraordinary would it be if we could step up on the surfboard, the present moment, plant our feet and stretch out our arms. If we trusted Divine Love to uphold us. If we let go long enough to feel, with our body and soul, the energy and movement of that love that is always present and always moving us towards a path unknown and surprising. How beautiful it would be if we could adjust and change our actions in response to what comes to us through careful attention and listening. Most of us will never be able to ride surfboards but we can all come back to centre and practise balance. Peace
3 Comments
David again
31/3/2016 09:06:24 pm
The balance point and the tipping point are probably at the very same moment in time but with very different outcomes. Threshold theory and tipping points has much to offer us and in ecology can lead to completely unrecoverable states of being to produce a new balance point in a different state. Population dynamics of all living things including us relies on using the resources around us to improve our own well being and our offspring but always eventually leads to a crash when the resources (food, shelter, breeding sites) are exhausted as more of us are produced and survive. My wondering is can we ever expect to maintain balance (riding the wave) without eventually falling off (population crashing) and then struggling out again to start all over again and end up with a different state of balance. We may end up different during each balance state and hence the balance does not remain static.
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Rebecca Newland
31/3/2016 09:42:53 pm
I think this is very insightful comment. I think the whole process is dynamic and it is of course impossible to remain 'in balance' all the time. We do fall off. I am not sure what that means for the future of the human race in terms of population dynamics but for the practise that I am exploring it is a matter learning from the falls and getting better at listening and attentiveness. This whole process changes the self over time. We are an 'ecosystem' that can theoretically learn.
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Foss
1/4/2016 11:14:44 am
i only got to the explanation of the metaphor ... because the imagery is so powerful for me and enough
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