We have all been hearing the word BALANCE for ages now. Balance home and work, family time and work time, me time, couple time and child time. Balance. Balance. Balance.
I’m here to tell you that I’ beginning to think that balance is a myth.
Let’s look at work and home balance. About the time you figure out how to work during the day and get as much as you can out of your time while the kids are in school, you have to start all over again because it’s winter or summer break. Then you have to find balance between working and spending time with your children while they are on break. Maybe you have to figure out how you will meet deadlines and still get to the movie theatre in the same afternoon. Then you finally get into a routine and they are back in school again, so it’s time to readjust … again.
What about family time and couple time? How many times have you planned a date with your sweetheart only to have someone in your family fall ill? That means you have to spend your romantic evening at home tending to a fever.
Sometimes I think balance is really something we will always fail at and feel miserable about.
What if we just do the best we can without trying to achieve some kind of mystical BALANCE? Sure, do more things that bring us closer to the ones we love. We can also add a spiritual practice to our daily routines to smooth over all of the craziness we deal with every day. But is there really a balance?
I’ve had three date nights with my significant other so now I am balanced. I got my article in early this morning before the family woke up and now we can go to the pool. I’m exhausted but can I say I have found a balance between work and family?
Or how about this – it’s time for dinner and I forgot to take out something to thaw, my article is past due and the kids have been fighting all day. My life is out of balance, my kids will grow up to be hobos and we’ll starve – all because I can’t find some kind of balance. Yeah, I don’t think so.
So do this – stop beating yourself up because BALANCE is just about as real as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Do the best you can to meet the needs of the people you care about while meeting your own needs at the same time. If you can crawl into bed at night safe, warm and loved, then you probably have achieved about all of the balance there is to be had.
By: Vicki O’Dell, The Creative Goddess
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