Quote

"When what you are fighting is not the enemy, surrender is victory, not defeat"

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Pendulum

 
I wrote this post a few days ago...I was not sure if I should post it...but I have wanted to be real with you all...so here goes (These are just some inner thoughts...if you think they are unintelligent...please be nice:))
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I read a disturbing post recently that got me thinking.  Life really is about balance.  Thank you Mr. Miyagi:)  I am not going to link the post.  It is highly unlikely that this person reads my blog.  The writer was sharing something personal and painful and has a right to their feelings, but it just spurred these thoughts and I wanted to share them with you.


When life gets too far out of balance, it can be painful.  Oftentimes we overcompensate and swing too far the other direction.  Like a person about to fall waving their arms.  We back pedal a safe distance from one side and end up too far on the other.  Eventually, do we come to some sort of center?  Maybe, or we might just keep swinging back and forth as life is a constant flow of experiences. We try to find balance as individuals and as societies.  Why do we humans try to find balance?...I don't know exactly but my guess would be peace.  Let me try saying it this way:

It's like a pendulum...
Disclaimer: Ok...I am not a scientist or an engineer...so bear with me you braniacs out there.  This is not a math or science lesson!  I swear if anyone wants to pull out Newton on me...
just bear with the analogy...ok?

You have a fixed point and hanging from the fixed point is a weight on a piece of string. When the weight is motionless and is hanging straight down it is in equilibrium.  When outside forces affect the weight...someone walks along and pushes it for example, then the pendulum will swing back and forth, back and forth until it comes back to equilibrium again.  Each time the weight goes back and forth a little shorter distance. Unless of course another force is acting on it...someone pushing on it again, the wind, etc.  Picture for a moment that we are the weight (since we do not live in a vacuum and there will always be friction and force on the weight) and we are surrounded by people, experience, our own inner turmoil...I believe that we are constantly in motion...but are still pulled to seek the balance. 

Examples:
Individual                                                   
apathy                                                       peace/happiness                                            fury
Society
discrimination                                          acceptance                                           reverse discrimination

Call it gravity of the soul.  The place where your soul feels peace.  For some the gravity is stronger than others.  If the gravity is stronger, the weight will swing less or it will take more for it to get swinging. Because the pull of gravity makes you have to push or pull harder on the weight to get it to move. (Geez...gravity of the soul...I am being awfully deep this morning:))

I suppose the goal is this...you want YOUR Gravity to be stronger than the forces pushing and pulling on your soul because you will spend more time at peace.  Don't misunderstand me...I think you should live, experience, love...but do it with less fear, despair, and hate.  I guess I just pray that everyone finds what gives them peace.  I don't like to see others in pain.

What is my Gravity...FAITH.  My Gravity is GOD.  Maybe mine looks a little different than yours...but he calls to MY soul.  What calls to yours...where do you find peace?  What is your Gravity? 

Everyone has their own pendulum to deal with.  Everyone feels the pain of our own pendulums moving too far in one direction...by the consequences of our own choices or being pushed there by others.  Add together our out of whack pendulums and we get a society out of whack.  We have an effect on other's pendulums whether we like it or not...we should try to have a positive one.  Maybe we can keep them from swinging to far in the other direction...we can't control their pendulum...we have an influence on it.  There is a difference.

"You remember lesson about balance?  Lesson not just karate only, lesson for whole life. Whole life, have balance, everything be better."  Mr. Miyagi



8 comments:

  1. So true. Love your post. Life is all about balance, whatever it may be. It's what keeps us all from falling off the edge, or at least most of us.

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    1. Thank you sunnygirl...hope you have an awesome Thanksgiving!

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  2. Balance is hard to find sometimes for me also, but it's good to know God is still in control and can use even our mistakes.

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    1. Me too Sis! As soon as I think I am getting close...I pass right by peace on my way to the next challenge:) I think God helps me to feel his peace easier...I am not sure if any of this makes sense:)

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  3. Curiously enough, Bea - this is one of the ways Ian often expresses - through the pendulum as a medium. I am going to read this post to him and have him comment, because it will have much more meaning that mine.
    hugs
    lillie

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  4. Brilliant post. I agree with you wholeheartedly.

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  5. I'm no scientific geek either and this made perfect sense. Balance inside and then balance between my husband and are are very difficult to find. Sometimes I have one and not the other.

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  6. All true!

    My parents often refer to it as "flow". So they may say they feel they are "working against the flow of the universe" and that they need to "get back in the flow" rather than working against it.

    It's a little too "crunchy granola" (I don't know if that is a common saying, but my wife uses it) for me, but that doesn't make it any less truthful.

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