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.