Road Lesson #1-Balance

The day we left for our motorcycle trip

I strapped my new bag onto the bike

Jumped on, made the sign of the cross and signaled to The Hubs that I was ready

He pulled out first and I followed him down the block

My bike felt slightly different but I shrugged it off to the fact that we were leaving late in the day

At the stop sign I felt wobbly and odd as my bike continued to roll a bit

The Hubs looked at me funny and I shrugged saying I had to remember I was carrying a heavy bag

And so it went the first and second days

I knew something felt ‘off’ and I kept making excuses

He had just tuned my bike, the bag was heavy, we left later, the sun was shining

I’m short and I can never really reach the ground on my bike other than with the ball of my feet

I noticed that only the tiptoes of my boots were reaching and then it hit me

By the end of the second day I pulled into a gas station and finally admitted to The Hubs

“Well, I’ve gained weight. My thighs are wider thus pushing my legs out further thus raising my feet”

“Either that or I’m shrinking”

He raised his eyebrow and said nothing

The third morning he tells me to try moving my bag off my passenger seat to the luggage rack

I switch bag placements, get on the bike and we leave

At the first stop light I come to a smooth stop next to him and say

“Holy crap, I can reach the ground again!”

By moving my bag a mere 3” to the rear I changed the distribution

The weight on my bike was unbalanced

I felt something was wrong but tried to justify it instead of taking the necessary actions to correct it

And all it took was a little tweak to re-establish the balance between bike and I

and we danced happily along our journey 

(heehee I promise not to get all mushy like in the previous post)

~ ~ ~

I think Life is like that sometimes

We're an amazing and complex creation

We have a physical, emotional, spiritual, mental self all working together in harmony

When something is 'off', we know it, we feel it, we sense it

It can be as simple as a thought

And that mere little thought has the power to change the balance

We become bitter thus swaying deeper into a bad mood

We can manifest physical changes as our body tries to compensate for the mental signals it's receiving

We start looking for reasons why we feel bad and we start justifying

We find fault in ourselves and eventually in others

We start feeling the world is a bad place and 'they' are all out to get us

And it spirals as the balance is tipped further and we spin out of control

And our unbalance spirals out to affect the balance of that which is around us

Like ripples in the water

And sometimes all it takes is being aware 

Of taking a moment to acknowledge that something feels off and do a mental scan

To accept the thought and reach for a better one

To play the game of tweak a little bit here and a little bit there

To keep reaching and correcting and reaching some more

To trust that little voice, that internal barometer we've been gifted, that says 

"OI! Something's up!"

~ ~

I know I've said this before

but it's in that tweaking, that need to keep balancing as I go along

where I find the most fertile ground for growth

That good and bad are necessary for balance

And each time I emerge with a deeper appreciation

A deeper love and understanding

And thoroughly amazed and deeply grateful for the opportunity to be alive

Life is SO freaking amazing

 ~

and so my Quest continues...