Thursday, April 28, 2016

Learning Balance




Anyway you look at it balance makes sense.

Every area of our life requires balance.

It often involves waiting.

Balance is so subtle it can't really be taught but with some experimentation and practice we can learn to position the weightier matters of life (and ourselves) so that gravity (and all other pressures, good or bad) work for us.

Balance is the equalizing of a lot of different pulls.
The thing is we have been given this 'sense of balance' - it's our 6th sense, actually. We can not stand without it.
(We can know when we are off balance without using any of the other 5 senses!)

Balance is wonderful symmetry.

And balance is a dance, a reflection, a repeated phrase, a pleasingly proportioned design.

Balance is a comparison, a relationship, it is seeing the connection, the ratio, understanding the give-and-take of a situation.


Life is a constant balancing act in this topsy turvy world.

And you know what? Stones can help us find that balance.






Dry Laid 'Balance' by Eric Landman 

Merely 'balancing' stones however, which involves stacking them to display the sparsest of contact between the stones may be missing the point. To really balance them, so they are much better supported, so that they are less vulnerable, requires something more.

Laying stones in a durable, structural configuration, as in a dry laid wall, we are learning to fit them with as many points of contact as possible, (not the least) and so we are maximizing their ability to stay together and maximizing their balance.

Taking into account friction and gravity ( factors that are often perceived as adverse and disconcerting ) we are somehow able to create permanent balanced results.

This new found knowledge will be useful when we are looking to find (our) balance in the many other areas where it sometimes seems to be lacking.