Keeping things in balance

One of my greatest daily challenges is trying to achieve a sense balance and symmetry. For me this is extremely difficult to do, because I confess, I have a touch of an obsessive nature; my enthusiasm for any given project, often takes hold of me so much so, that I can lose hours of my day focused on one thing. I can get passionate about almost anything, from spending exorbitant amounts of time in front of the computer, to whole afternoons lost in the backyard trying to create order out of our chaotic little jungle of plants and weeds. Whatever the current project d'jour, after a while, I start to feel a bit out of kilter, and realize that I need to refocus my energies on some other aspect of my life in order to regain my balance. It is necessary to do this, to keep the creeping fingers of guilt that reach out and seek to strangle me, at bay. There is always guilt. Guilt that if I am focused on a client project, I'm not paying enough attention to my children. Guilt that if I'm chatting away on-line, I'm not focusing on pressing work related issues. If I am painting, I'm guilty that I'm not attending ball practice and avidly observing my kids run around the bases and cheering them on and building up their self esteem.

So, it is a tricky thing this balancing act I do. My center of gravity is continually being challenged...always tipping, tipping, tipping. I realize more and more that the key to my happiness is finding that point where I feel that I am giving equal weight to all the various areas of my life. "Everything in moderation", as my mother would say. A little of anything is a good thing, whether it be good wine, chocolate or how much time you spend at the computer. Hugging children, I am finding, is a great way for me to regain my precarious perch, a place where I feel things are in order and in balance again.