Here is a picture of the Pink supermoon from our yard! My children and I walked outside last night to look at this moon and we pondered it's effect, if any, on the earth. One can research good ol google and find a lot about the effects, supposed and scientific. Some good and some suggestive of tragedy.
In any case, it was a beautiful sight!
In our household, which consists these days of myself ( a middle aged adult), my 17 year old son, 15 year old daughter and 4 year old son, we have been discussing balance at length.
In my last blog the topic was finding balance between social media browsing and going more live with the media platforms vs getting outside, etc...well, that was the gist of it. [ Read it and then write to me what you came away with]
For my children, it's learning a new balance of completing online class work, getting outside and being on social media (for my 17 year old gaming is in there too). For my 4 yr old, it's a balance of active play vs. let's sit down and practice your letter writing...phew! For sure, my admiration of his teachers skyrockets and my knowledge that teachers do not get paid enough is confirmed.
Balance and the opportunity to find it is all around us and ever present. For some of us, waiting for a noticing that doesn't come until we've hit one extreme end of not enough balance.
I'm reading again, because it is absolutely one of my most favorite books, the Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram. He writes of our ( humans) need to stay connected to the earth and all of her elements and other beings besides us (humans) to help us stay grounded. Balance. Especially this day and age where a lot of human interaction is with other humans and our own inventions of technology. We all know though, in those moments that we pay attention, quiet and listen, or turn inward, that we Need that which is other (apart from us) so that Ironically we can stay in tune with ourselves. Balance.
Here's a quote from Abrams because he stated it so well:
"...we are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human. Does such a premise imply we must renounce all our complex technologies? It does not. But it does imply that we must renew our acquaintance with the sensuous world in which our techniques and technologies are all rooted."
Abrams includes our technology in his definition of human..or that human includes all that humans make, man made. And the sensuous world is this earth that we live in and on with all of its beautiful stuff. Nature. All that is not man made. Simply, there is a reciprocity between humans and the earth...a need one for the other. There's need for an understanding, a respect and a stewardship.
In these days of physical distancing, an enforced "permission" for us humans to slow down a bit, is an opportunity to walk barefoot on the earth, plant something, sit and listen to the trees, the wind and not interfere. In fact, we may even ask ourselves what it is we could do (more) in this time to aid in the balance?