Balance

I'm talking literal balance here, like a flamingo's ability to stand on one leg. Recently I attended a mindfulness hour at my local library, doing fine with the seated meditation portion and noticing a balance issue with the walking meditation. Perhaps it was a rhythm issue, and if I'd been in charge of my own rhythm and pace I'd have had less of a balance problem. But, after we walked in a large circle together around our circle of chairs, the leader did say the first time he tried this he had balance issues!

My usual walking meditation is 1) walking on the local trail 2) walking an outdoor labyrinth, just off this same trail. All of this takes place in the three seasons not known as winter! I miss walking outdoors, and I miss a certain balance of mind lately, too, as I am preoccupied these days with some family wamily issues that will sort themselves out pretty soon...though certain stresses will be ongoing. So I was delighted and grateful to discover on the day it was happening that I actually had the mindfulness hour free, could still sign up, and could actually attend.

I also practice my balance by 1) putting on pants 2) putting on shoes. Sometimes I try to stand like a crane, one leg straight, one leg bent, to put on each shoe. This morning, by chance, Facebook offered me a picture of the flamingo sculpture at the Tampa airport, making it a Random Coinciday in the blog! Also, I dreamed of putting on a shoe. And often I write poems while walking, a different kind of walking meditation. (Thank you to Wikipedia & Facebook for these images!)