Balance, Juggle, Choose?

On Elizabeth's lovely, color saturated blog Be Dream Play, she posted about "contrasts" the other day. I think she was throwing the topic out to ponder in an artist's way, but because she asked the question "what contrasts are YOU experiencing", I found myself thinking of it in a more personal way. Not what contrasts do I see around me but what contrasts am I experiencing.

What am I experiencing in my life that manifests on a continuum? In contrast? What yin yang am I balancing? What desires are whispering from different directions?

This is what popped into my head -

• I'm desperately craving the energy of the urban setting while feeling the need to renew my past pattern to spend time in nature on a regular basis.
• I'm pondering where to balance in between my desire to be where I want to be and my desire to be close to my kids (who are spread out all over the place so I can't in reality be where all of them are anyway).
• My needs <-----------> Family needs
• On a physical level, it's cold and icy outside my house, there's a warm crackling fire and hot tea inside my house.
• I want to clean and declutter while simultaneously I want to allow myself to let go and make a creative mess.
• I don't want to give up the privacy and quiet of the forgotten night but I need to reclaim more of the productivity of the collective day.
• I love the camaraderie of touching base with so many creative and like minded friends online and yet find being "out of touch" calming and energizing in an equal but opposite way.
• Long term goals vs. short term pleasures.
• Thinking and Doing
• Reading or Working
• Stringing words <> building images

It reads like a New Year's Resolutions list, doesn't it, with a twist? I think it's what goals and resolutions morph into in the real world. We can set goals in our life but I don't know a soul who can set out singlemindedly, first meeting goal A and then goal B and then goal C.... (although, men tend to think that way more than women, don't they? I know my hubby tries to make life tidy like that. Of course most things in life don't bend to his will and then he just ends ups frustrated and grumpy....) No, most people set specific goals and soon find instead they're juggling balls, or spinning plates, playing ping pong, or wandering through a maze of high hedges or house of mirrors trying to find the fastet way through.

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." - Albert Einstein

Maybe that's the key - moving forward even if it doesn't necessarily mean doing so in a straight line.