Balance is....
A perpetual stumbling
The pain of straining versus
the strength to bend to gravity's call
Senseless resistance against the ultimate end
brings only ripples of tension and tears.
A wholebodied embrace and a onepointed mind
lends grace to a more joyful demise.
How, then, should we
Tug without tearing
Stand without falling
Touch without bruising
See without staring
Tread without stamping
Do without trying?
It's a compromise
A question of degrees
A choice to float
For as long as the moment lasts
Between the forces that cannot resist or exist without an other.
Choose to
Rest in the discomfort
Find ease in the pressure
Face the darkness at the end
Release the tension
Bend with the wind
Abandon expectation
Accept imperfection.
Trees know this instinctively
Effortless stamina and stability
Everything passing through
In quietude
With the grace of a composure
that is all their own
No gaining idea
Just
Wise forebearance
Amidst all elements
Neither anticipating nor dreading the droop or the crash.
….
I can never resist the charm of a tree wherever I have the chance to go, from the shores of Costa Rica to the parklands of Bristol. Trees, along with the monkeys and the sloths, know how it’s done.