We are flowers
#65: Finding balance; some brief summer musing in the rush of life's return
How do we find a balance between keeping ourselves intentionally occupied, peacefully focused and productive, and maintaining a generous amount of real rest and leisure. I do not think that our society is built for this balance. Between our own incompatibility with the functions of society, and our own conflict of desires – from purpose to leisure – something’s always gotta give. Sacrifice.
Perhaps accepting a certain level of stress and difficulty can be a key to the balance we need. But it can’t be mere acceptance, we have to find a way to truly let it be without letting it in. May it abound about us. What is the way to inner peace amidst the chaos of the chorus of ‘go’ and ‘do’? Capitalism is not just about accruing success and money, it also demands the gains of information and relationship, etc. We want more, more, more. How do we reset this? How do we want: less? Perhaps wanting itself is the root to be rid of; and maybe the scale of more and less is irrelevant.
Want, want, want. How do we find our way into the beauty of being? Human being. Not human wanting. Not ‘what will be will be’. What is, is what is. Greener pastures lie at the end of a trek into our natural world: Be. Be. Be.
Total satisfaction is an unattainable goal. The prize we eye must be a way of being. A slower, calmer way of being in which all that we experience comes with a balanced understanding of the chaos and pleasure of life as it exists. We are flowers, pollinated then wilting, returning to our own grounding to disintegrate into the soil and give yet more to the plant from which we grew in the first place. Giving to, giving in, and giving back. An imperfect circle or cycle to be a part of. Willingness to let go and play our part, understanding that human being is at once cooperative and individualistic. We are special, in myriad ways.
My thinking about these things hinges much on the way in which the world has contracted and expanded again within the last year and a half. What a wild difference between last spring and this one. We are learning again, how to be human. And to me, the experience feels so fast-paced. It feels natural for me to long for the slower pace of those early pandemic days. How do we find a balance?