There was a day like any other recently. It involved the classic plot line of a beautiful day, a super busy parent, and children begging to go hiking in the woods. As this one played out, the parent abandoned responsibility, put on sturdy shoes, and answered the siren song of a 75 degree day in November.
We ended up down by the Cuyahoga River and my children skipped stones for a while. Then they decided to use the rocks as building blocks and pile them up like some modern Tower of Babel.
If you've never built a rock tower, well, take lessons from my kids. Joking aside, this is an exercise in patience. A rock seems flat until you have six others piled on top of it and they all come crashing down. And my rock structures were like something from the neolithic age compared to the finely wrought creations of my small, busy builders.
My youngest daughter ended up with a lovely striated formation and asked me to come see it. That's when i snapped this photo.
This picture is the wallpaper on my desktop. Every time i look at it my eyes stop in the foreground. What looks like just a pile of stones is really a picture of time spent and balance achieved. In the background is a little girl who is pleased to the ends of her small fingers and toes. She is in nature. She is building. She is spending time with family, and she is delighted.
We can't walk out into the woods every time our lives are stressful or hectic. Some days being the good adult means ignoring what seems fun to make sure our clients needs are met. But there are times when it is right and good to go down by the river or up a mountain or wherever else you find peace and escape.
Just like that tower, a breath way from tumbling, life is about equilibrium. If we can play and work in meshing measure, there will be a harmony in our days. We will live in the beautiful space of balance.
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