The Value in Balance

"Girl, if you come here to complain again, get out of my house!" Stacy screamed to her best friend as they sipped hot chocolate while staring outside at the pile-up of snow left by old man winter two days ago.

"You are throwing me out into the cold?"

"I am tired of you focusing only on the negative," Stacy said in frustration. "When your life is going great, you brag. When it's not, you spend more time complaining than you take to return gratitude."

"Calm down, girl," Bess replied, resting her half-filled cup of hot chocolate on the table.

"I am tired of hearing you grumbling. You complain about everything. You are the one responsible for your decisions, and all of our decisions demand a level of balance."

"What are you saying?" Bess asked sternly, getting ready for another lecture.

"Life demands balance. Our actions, choices, and decisions help to maintain it. Humans don't give to balance willingly."

"When did I deny life balance?"

"You do it every day by always finding something to complain about."

"How?" Bess asked, rolling her light brown eyes.

"Last year, you made a big financial decision and were happy with the outcome. Your broker told you it's time to sell. You refuse. The stocks plummeted, and you lost a lot of money. Then you cast blame. Buy and sell, profit and loss, win and lose. They all add up to balance. Life isn't a one-way street."

"I didn't look at it that way," she regrets.

"Joe loved you for twenty years," Stacy tagged her memory. "He was good to you, was a great father to your children, and was good to your family too. You threw him aside for a younger man who wrecked your life and stole from you. Joe found love with a younger woman, and you are alone."

"Where is balance in this?"

"He is happy. You are not."

"Damn!" she said in realization.

"We have known each other since we were five years old. I know more about your life and living than your mom."

"The same for you," Bess adds.

Nodding in agreement, Stacy continued, "Every time your life is going really good, you do something stupid to disrupt the flow, then you moan and groan how horrible your life is. You must allow balance in, or it will take control away from you."

"It already has," she said in deep thought. "I didn't mean to be griping all of the time, but I must say something when things aren't going the way I want them to."

Reaching over and taking her friend's hands, Stacy consoles, "I know, but you must also learn from the mistakes you make and realize that balance is here to teach us how to live better and make wiser decisions. Good and bad is how balance teaches us. It's lessons for me and gives to me because I accept and learn from them. So, I give back."

"That's why your life isn't as stressed out and complicated as mine."

"And I do yoga to relieve my stress, too," Stacy injected.

Drifting off into the past, Bess meets regret and contentment. Sadness and happiness. Love and hatred. Common sense, stupidity, and all of the elements that balance requires her to give for her to make better decisions. Tears found their way in, and she smiled and asked, "why are we programmed only to accept the best and shun the worst. When there are more lessons to be learned from all of our mistakes?"

Sighing deeply, still holding onto Bess's hands, Stacy shared, "It's a choice. And when you are aware of the important role balance plays, accept and welcome it, you will make the right one."

Easing from her friend's grasp, wiping away her tears, Bess asked, "Can you help me?"

"We made a pact after graduation in high school more than thirty years ago that we will always be there for each other," Stacy reminded her.

A smile followed that memory, and Bess wept, looking back further, then wisdom speaks, "So balance prevented you from taking life and others for granted?"

Stacy's eyes widened as she reached out and hugged her best friend, "Yes, that's how powerful balance is!"

I found that out a long time ago. Accepting balance has prevented me from taking life and everyone for granted. That thinking is added to everything in my life. I don't assume that things will always go well. Or someone will always be there to save me. Or the sun will come out every day. Or the rain will bless the earth all of the time. Earth gives us balance through seasons, storms, and calms. Famine and feast, etc.

We should give the same to our lives.

It's hard to accept the bad, but it comes with lessons learned. If I want to learn from my mistakes, then the not-so-good things come with these life-saving tidbits. Balance makes my life livable. I survived many battles and planned to survive more thanks to balance.

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it.