Cep yor balins

This is the picture on the background of my cell phone. On the bottom of the background it says, "Cep yor balins." This is the PT speak for "keep your balance" (that was the only way the sentence would fit in the screen of my phone).

I think one of the hardest, yet most important challenges in life is being able to keep a healthy balance. It's obvious in things like, say, balanced eating (and, by the way, balanced eating doesn't mean eating salads three times a day. It may seem healthy to eat so many veggies, but it's good to eat yummier other food, too!) but less obvious when it comes to just life in general. Relationships need balance. Work needs balance (which means you should save time every day for PLAY. You know what they say - all work and no play makes you a very boring person! Or something like that). Er, on the flip side, play needs balance. Joking around needs balance.

There's a time for everything, right? Et le'ehov, et lisnoh, et milchama, et shalom, et l'blogging, et lishon, etc. etc. etc. That's all part of being balanced. We need each one, and yet we can't do each one in excess.

To quote some cliche phrase said by someone or other, life is a balancing act. It's like there's this really, really, really long balance beam running through our lives and each person crosses it differently. Some run. Some skip. Some walk with confidence. Others timidly force one foot in front of the other. Sometimes people wobble a bit. Sometimes they fall. But when they fall, hopefully there's a safety net to catch them. Then they can get climb right back up and continue going. And what is the safety net? Family. Friends. Your own self-confidence. I suppose that last one is the most important, though as much as everyone stresses how crucial it is to be self-sufficient and believe in yourself, there's so much value in having people there to help out and give moral support, too. Again, it's a balance. It shouldn't be all your friends and family, yet it doesn't have to be all you all the time, either. Balance. And you, of course, can be there for your friends and family when they go through hard times, just like they're there for you. And for happy times, too. And yet, it isn't good to rely too much on outside help. You have to trust yourself, and you also have to trust that others who care about you will be there for you when you need it. It's sort of like, those who care about you are your safety net so they're there to catch you when you fall and to ease the pain somewhat, but you have to pick yourself up and climb back on board. No one can do that for you - all anyone else can do is provide support so you don't fall even further. Also, I'm talking to myself as much (if not more) as I'm talking to anyone reading this.

Balance is everything. The most important thing to realize is that the better balance you have, the easier it will be to cross that beam.