This is the working program for one of our Group Experiences.
Balance at The Equinox
March 20, 2010
Program
Opening Words and Lighting of the Chalice For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to work, and a time to rest; a time for noise, and a time for silence; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time for friends, and a time for solitude; a time for starfaring, and a time to take root on the earth.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. ~based on Ecclesiastes 3
Spirit of Life
Machines by Michael Donaghy
Gather the Spirit
Two Balance Games
Here Comes the Sun with Judy and Steve
Thoughts on Balance and Discussion with Heather
Come, Sing a Song with Me
Closing Words Like a cyclist or a harpsichordist, may we balance by moving, and by balancing, move. Blessed be. Blessed be.
Notes from the discussion
- Heather is in the middle of trying to discover for herself what balance is or could look like
- Group is asked to write or draw ideas/images that remind us of balance or finding one's center
- Heather's old images of balance
- Shortly after becoming a parent, her first image was a to-do list
- Then a pie chart, dividing up finite personal resources
- Tug-of-war with Heather as the rope (passive)
- "Hats" that she wears at various times, ex. sports, childcare, creativity, career
- Teeter-totter: Balance shifted so far in one direction, toward adapting and accomodating external needs, that she was coming close to burnout
- Heather's present balance issues
- work vs. family
- Kid's book describing how you need to balance caring for body, soul, heart, and mind
- Main character is too focused on mind (reading books)
- Body: riding bikes
- Soul: lying and watching clouds w/ harmonica-playing friend
- Heart: drawing pictures w/ friend
- Accepting life as it is, vs. need to make changes
- Past, present, future
- Self vs. others
- Flexibility vs. structure (Heather tends to prefer the latter)
- Intuitive vs. logical/linear thought
- Heather's new images
- Standing on one foot while holding the other
- Hand on your stomach/center helps
- Venn diagram of all areas of life
- Self and self-study/mindfulness is at center where all circles overlap
- Two that Heather uses w/ clients, kids & families at a mental health clinic
- Giant wave representing emotions threatening to carry you away
- Surfboarder riding on top of the wave
- Others' images
- John:
- Parachute
- Snowboarder
- Person hanging on two ends of a rope around a pulley
- Computer, representing need for balance at his software job
- He recently started running during lunch breaks
- Shelley: Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill
- Steve (writing): Some oscillation away from balance is usually essential, but you have more freedom when near a balance point
- Judy (poems)
- "Raking dry leaves in a wind"
- Last two lines: "Our work is undone behind us as we go on / doing the work because there's work to be done."
- "Spooning away"
- Lyric:
- Fractal
- Within each area of life that you have to balance w/ other areas, there are sub-areas to balance as well
- Like w/ the Venn diagram, you're at the center
- Seesaw: using many tiny muscles to keep it level
- Finding the appropriate/necessary amount for each area (doesn't have to be 8 hrs per area per day just because it's 8 hrs at work)
- The universe is not fundamentally made of things, but of relationships
- Christopher Alexander book, Patterns: all aspects of life should be "blended"
- Judy:
- Does work count as part of life?
- Other things are more important, but you might not have any of yourself left to maintain it
- Steve: In traditional societies, husbands and wives looked after separate sides of the balance
- Heather and Steve: Seasons, only letting day and night be in balance two days a year, give dynamism that makes our world what it is