Finding Balance Amid Stunning Violence and Beauty

We all share the work of finding balance in a world with stunning violence and beauty.

I began writing the piece below knowing there was a mass shooting the day before. I don't have answers, but a deep sadness and fear that many people are feeling hopeless. My first reaction - put your small light in the world.

Midway through writing, I learned there was a second shooting. My whole post seem so inconsequential and I felt paralyzed. Upon reflection, I decided to stay the course.

Our everyday work is the big work.

I see you friends, I feel the heat of fear too. Let's stay connected.

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By the time August comes along, I struggle to spend time in the garden. The heat is set on high most of the day and the mosquitoes have a special call to their brethren when they see me: "Look there's Laurie! She's the juiciest!

The cool soft chair in my den calls me.

I prefer the Spring when the temperatures are cooler and the canvas of the garden stretches with possibility. Instead of planning and planting time it's weeding, pruning, and tying up stems time.

Fortunately, there are creatures who thrive in this hot weather. Butterflies, yellow finches and hummingbirds float or zoom around me while my sweat pours.

My practicely lately is to capture their images and share them. It's my current yoga off the mat. Not the stretch-and-balance-on-one-foot-kind, but the yoga that means union, connection and finding balance when it's so hot that your thermometer reads :

"Are you kidding me?!"

Many of us have the luxury of finding refuge from the heat, but we are all share the work of finding balance in a world with stunning violence and beauty.

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Here's a gift today from Emily Dickson. May we all dwell in possibility. I believe together we can find a way. It's our only choice.

I dwell in Possibility – (466) BY EMILY DICKINSON

I dwell in Possibility –

A fairer House than Prose –

More numerous of Windows –

Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –

Impregnable of eye –

And for an everlasting Roof The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors –

the fairest –

For Occupation – This –

The spreading wide my narrow Hands

To gather Paradise –