When you pick up that large grocery bag, or three or five because why not put one on each finger, it weighs you down.  Maybe it even strains your shoulder a bit, but you trudge on.  Or do you?  You could pick up that gallon of milk in the other hand too, because let’s face it, you got this.  What happens when you do?  Suddenly the strain from the other shoulder begins to subside and you walk more upright.  Sure it’s still a strain but now you are moving right along.  Why is this?  Because you are balanced.

No this isn’t a Science class, although funny how human behavior really is a Science.  Life is a balance.  And more so now than ever we need to understand just how to do that.  In the example of the bags and the milk, you have a choice.  And life is just that, a series of choices you get to make.  Sure you could drop the bag in hopes someone else will get it or you could just grab one at a time making the trip to the kitchen more bearable, but obviously longer.  Perhaps you could just carry the load as I had chosen, but no matter what you do, the choice is yours.  There is no right or wrong answer.  Some of us wish to think that the lazy way of dropping the bag for someone else would be wrong, but maybe you don’t realize that the person that made that choice did so in order to receive much needed relief from a medical condition or was dropping them to run after a family member getting ready to fall.  The universe doesn’t judge.  We see it all the time, or we think we do, the rich getting richer while those of us that work hard just seem to have to work harder.  But is seeing believing?  The truth is none of us know what someone else may be going through and in order to achieve balance, you really shouldn’t care.  What happens when someone asks to take one of those bags off your fingers?  I bet you shout no way, I got this!  Why?  Well we will drop all the other bags and lose balance! So point taken, it’s not for anyone else to provide us the balance we need in life.  No amount of judging and blaming others is going to get you to where you need to be.  No, balance takes self discipline.  And once you achieve it, you won’t ever go back.

They say it takes a traumatic experience for someone to really change.  And so here’s your chance!  My life pre-COVID, was definitely one that needed more balance.  Although I must say that for those who always wondered how I did it all, single parenting, working full time, home ownership; it was balance.  And those times I found myself less than happy, well those were the times I dropped the bags.  Not only dropped but in good ol’ Dana fashion, dropped and broke the glass milk jug all over the floor.  So if I focused on that, the spilled milk per say, then unhappiness would creep in and put its firm grip around my life.  But when I scream at the milk, clean it up and forget about it or hey, maybe learn from it; my happy place is left unscathed.  The point is you’re going to have tough moments and some of those moments last months, years even, some only hours.  But don’t let those times allow to take a hold of what you are living now.  Look at how far you have come, who surrounds you and where you are going.  Stay focused on the task, but don’t let it control your world.  Our children are learning in a whole new way and we are doing our best.  Be good to you and them, let go and learn to know your emotions.  No one can do that for you.  If you are in tune with yourself, you will know what sets you off and how much you can handle.  Back off before things get to this point.  Nothing is that important.  Nothing is more important than you.  Those around you cannot thrive and maintain a healthy balance if you are always negative because that would mean in order to maintain balance they would always need to be positive and after 16 years of marriage trying, I have found out that is not humanly possible, no matter how much you like to laugh.

Take advantage of this time no matter your situation to focus on yourself.  It is not our jobs to juggle everyone around us.  But, it’s when you achieve that balance that suddenly you can.  “It’s Times Like These you learn to live again”.