I receive an email every day from a guy I really admire, Brian Johnson. He’s the creator of Philosopher’s Notes. Well worth taking a boo at his website,  http://philosophersnotes.com/

It’s plain and simple, no frills, but the content, holy smokes!! Brian reads the books we all swear we’re going to make time for and he basically writes a Coles (Cliff) Notes version. Philosophy-to-go, because you can also download the MP3 version of each synopsis as well. Condensed knowledge, with Brian’s sense of humour and own depth of thought rounding out the experience.

So this morning I woke up to receive the quickie version of a Philosopher’s Note, called Big Ideas, of his latest read “Harmonic Wealth”.  James Arthur Ray was quoted by Brian as saying, “I’m a great believer in harmony, but balance is bogus. Many teachers talk about balance, and guess what? Not one of them is balanced.  I know, I used to be one of them. Balance in this world cannot be achieved so get over it. Think of a scale. In perfect balance, nothing’s happening. There’s no dynamism, no life, or vibrancy. Now think of a jazz band-the life and vibrancy are palpable aren’t they? The performers in this band have less to do with playing the melody as written and more to do with improvising. They give life to nuance and the music takes shape in the moment. Now that’s harmony.”

Now that is very interesting. I gotta give it to Brian. He has more than once shaken up my world view, and for the better. Another time I’ll talk about his devotion to “declarations” instead of “affirmations”; but for today I’m going to stick with balance.

I had was what undoubtedly one of the crappiest weekends in years. I got some news on Friday afternoon from someone I’m very close to that’s going to tear her world apart. During the conversation I called on every ounce of coaching lore I could remember so as to give this person not only a safe place to fall apart, but also a bedrock of strength to hold onto. It went well I think. Yep. She left the phone with an action plan she could hold onto as the one bit of sanity in an insane situation; and I even managed to get her laughing for a bit.

But when I hung up, I doubled over with the pain of what I knew was coming for her and her family. And that’s the way I felt well into Sunday. By that time I couldn’t take it anymore, so attempted to shut down the welling of emotion, by settling for just plain grim. I was trying to find a balance for myself, so that I could function without crying or lamenting, and maybe enjoy a little of the beautiful day that Sunday was.

By this morning I was exhausted, and it wasn’t until my Blackberry beeped with a text from my sweetheart, that I could see a little light creep into the dark corners of my despair. And then when he walked in with a goofy grin and a smacking kiss, I let go completely. I could have dragged him into it. He knows the person who called me in trouble. But I decided that talk could wait for another time, and I let myself get silly and giggly, and spent 3 glorious hours on the opposite side of despair.

James Arthur Ray may have something. Balance is not all the pundits crack it up to be.

Ours is a dualistic world. There is a heaven and an earth; female and male; sorrow and joy.

If we spend all our energy trying to walk the tightrope for fear of falling into a pit of sorrow let’s say; then when would take the chance of leaping off for joy’s sake?

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