Everything I need to know I learned from Chinese acrobats

What does a balanced life look like?

The new school year is like New Year's for me when it comes to making resolutions. I LOVE fresh starts and I welcome the opportunity to plan how "this term, we can get our act together."

Nick and I were talking about to-do list and goals and what life would look like for the new term and I found myself rattling off my usual list of all the aspects of my life I wanted to keep in balance. I am now starting to wonder what balance actually looks like.

 I mean, type in a google search of "balance" and you can find all kinds of crazy images of superhuman feats. Check out this photo, for instance.

Weird, amazing and totally superfluous, these Chinese circus performers are teaching me a lesson. Sure, everything is in balance, but do I want my life to be in balance in a Chinese circus performer kind of way? This is my plea for a simple life.

 Sure, it's fun for people to ask "How do you do it all?" and feel some sense of accomplishment from the sheer number of things we are tackling in life right now. But we need to evaluate if we are carrying around more than is necessary--or bordering on the ridiculous. Are we doing what we must do and doing it well? I want to. Do I try to accomplish too much trying to be the superhero that nobody can be? 

Do I really want my life to be a constant circus act, "in balance" but just barely, always flirting with dramatic collapse if one thing goes awry? I want to find the kind of balance that doesn't need a fancy pink costume and isn't done for the sake of wowing the crowd. A grounded life, at home with my God and who He made me to be. 

Yes, I suppose I will always need to keep the plates spinning, and no one can fully remove the performer in me, but I will try to keep the acrobatics to a minimum.

But I'm going to need help. I have no idea, really, how to simplify my life. In fact, on any given day, I have more things I'd like to add to it--a new friend I want to meet, a new language I want to learn, a place I want to visit, a book I want to write. Then there's my husband and child who actually want to eat every single day! And there's just not enough life to fit it all in at once. So, no easy solutions here. Just trying to keep it all in balance.
How do you do it?

Laura Lee