Balanced Rock

I've returned from my Utah trip, and I'm thinking about the things that came out of it for me. The above is a picture of me by Balanced Rock in Arches National Park in Utah.

I'm thinking of how to be Balanced Rock myself in these days. How did this formation weather the centuries and environmental realities in order to maintain its beauty and formation integrity?

I think the rock must know what it's made of, essentially. I heard an amazing orator speak this week, and he happens to come by it honestly, in that as he spoke, I imagined how his ancestors must have spoken, and how he carries who he is forth to the present day and weathers today's environmental realities.

I got to know some wonderful Maori people for a brief period of time, and they explained their perspective, of how our ancestors can be with us. It seemed to me that they maintain the balance through a steadfast commitment to the integrity of their teachings and core central view.

As you can tell, I met some amazing Balanced Rocks even outside of Arches National Park!

In my own family, we've lost much of the oral traditions that would have sustained us. A cousin and I are the main proponents of examining the genealogy and extending back our family tree. A generation before, someone had begun the work for us, and perhaps a generation after, it will continue. Still, I do feel that there are qualities and attributes we carry forward into today's environment that are a product of our shared ancestors, perhaps without fully even realizing it.

I'm ever vigilant for signs that direct the course that give me indicators of a
course of action that may not seem to make much sense to others. I sit back, watch, listen, before swooping in taking action, but by the time I've taken the action, I've already got a bead on something. I don't expend unnecessary energy in my hunt, so I'm very efficient in my use of what some might consider power. I do this, but it never occurred to me until I heard the orator speak, that perhaps this is a gift of my lineage.

I discovered my playful humor on this trip, and experienced in in quite a new way. It was genuine, bubbling forth like water from a stream, dancing across rocks. I found myself out from the shadows of whatever portals of hell had opened above me, and into the sunlight in order to flow. That resiliency is a part of the Balanced Rock that is me.

Perhaps I embraced the death to all of the things I held dear, and just went with "what is" rather than what I wanted it to be. Even in doing so, there's the knowledge and awareness of choices made by others beyond both my comprehension and control, on areas that directly impact me. But I feel at peace with it and myself, because like Balanced Rock in Arches National Park, I know where I stand.

Really, that's all that matters, is knowing that and being all right with it.