A Beautiful Life

Photo: Savory

Melissa, over at The Inspired Room, proposed an interesting exercise. In a post entitled Balancing Act: Finding a Beautiful Life, she sought to include her readers by asking them, "Have you set any goals or made any progress this week towards the life YOU want?" A provocative question indeed.

The word I focused on in her post was in the title, "Balancing." What is life if it is not a balancing act? A metaphor - three ring circus - comes to mind.

Balance is essential to a happy and peaceful existence. Within the least insightful among us - those who have never even pondered such things - a primal voice whispers that contentment resides in a life of moderation, variety, balance in all things.

My particular circumstances at this particular time of my life create significant challenges to that end, but can't that be said of almost any life at any given time?

Mind, body and spirit. How can we say that one is more important than another, but there are times when we become so focused on one thing that something else inevitably suffers. I'm not saying this is always bad. There are times in our lives when we must give our complete attention to one thing, but we need to be mindful not to allow those times to continue for too long.

Goals seem too intimidating for me right now, but how about habits. Perhaps I could put a concerted effort toward changing one or two small things. Repetition creates a habit. Perhaps I could find those precious moments to exercise, to meditate, or maybe I'll make sure I find the time to do something I love, something that fills me up.

This is the time of year to take stock, to evaluate, to ask ourselves if we are living the kind of life we imagined for ourselves in our higher moments of consciousness? Are we fulfilled in our careers? Do we feel valued? Are we good with our loved ones? Do we feel comfortable that we're making our choices according to our ethics and morals? Where do we stand financially? Are we spending our money on things that will better our lives, or simply buying stuff without reason and purpose behind our choices.

As I evaluate all these things, I feel more gratitude than stress. I realize these are the right questions, and it's up to me to make sure that I am always working toward a life that will give the right answers this time of year - every year.

Thank you , Melissa, for prompting a little navel gazing.