Balance and Sway Between Extremes
Equal Day and Night
In the realm of celestial cycles, opposites come into balance after being out of balance and at the extremes. Equinoxes are the times of the year when the daylight hours equal the nighttime hours. Photo of sunlight hitting a tree trunk by Anne Morris at Unsplash.
When I was a child, the children’s story by Dr. Seuss called Horton Hears a Who! made me cry complicated tears of hope and relief with the line, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” In the story, Horton the elephant discovers there is life on a tiny dust speck, and then he tries his best to protect it. The animals ridicule him as delusional, because they can’t hear the tiny “Whovians” living on the tiny planet. The animals even want to burn the dust speck! Oh, no! My child mind was afraid for the Whovians. To prove there is life on the tiny planet, every single Whovian must raise their voice to make a sound, and so save and protect life on the tiny planet. At last, a “yap” from a child Whovian rings clear, and the animals can hear them! There is relief. The story shows that even in extremes, life finds a way to protect the most vulnerable.
The story of the Whovians protecting their tiny planet comes back to me as the Spring Equinox is taking place this week. I am thinking about extremes and observing the horizon. During the Spring Equinox, it’s the time of the year when the daylight hours and nighttime hours are equal, signaling the start of the Spring season in the northern hemisphere (in the southern hemisphere, it is the Autumnal Equinox signaling the Fall season right now). The Equinox is a celestial balance between extremes, a middle time in between the long nights of the winter and the long days of the summer.
Do we ever need balance of the extremes? It is a constant in the human story.
Now, coming out of the deep freeze of the winter and into the spring sunshine, what will we do? Like the Whovians, it may be time to make a sound in the literal or metaphorical sense. In the seriousness of worldly concerns, you may very well be called to speak your mind or take action in order to protect life. The springtime energies also signal beginnings, which can be delicate. May your endeavors go well.
The mindbody practice for any Equinox period is to experience a sense of balance in your mind and body.
Here’s a little practice for sensing bodily balance: Begin by becoming aware of light, whether morning or evening, to notice nature shifting outside your window or all around you. Then: Tap into a sense of physical balance and equilibrium when you stand up and tilt your head up toward the sky. If you feel your balance is a bit wobbly, have a chair nearby before you close your eyes lightly to feel your body swaying every so slightly as it searches for balance. You can even do this while seated in a chair by raising your arms over your head as you take a few moments to sense the body’s postural sway. It may take a quiet moment to sense the natural and spontaneous postural sway movements, which arise from the continuous, and subtle oscillation of the body’s center of mass during moments of quiet standing or holding physical postures like having your arms over your head. Postural sway tends to be more pronounced as a person ages or in certain health conditions, and simple balance exercises like standing on one foot or raising your arms over your head regularly can help you train it. Balance can be trained.
Come into balance and feel you are a part of nature. Breathe in the feelings of balance before you make your next move. Then, when it is time for you…