Rev. Ann C. Fox
(508) 992-7081
minister@uufairhaven.org
Unitarian
Universalist
Society of Fairhaven
Balance as a Spiritual Practice
a sermon by Rev. Ann C. Fox
September 7, 2008
I begin this morning with a poem called “Weekend Forecast” by Danna Faulds:
The forecasters knew with
uncanny exactitude just
when yesterday’s blue sky would fill with clouds.
They issued a flood watch,
predicted the amount of
rainfall, pointed out the
wide area over which the
weekend storm would pass….
I don’t envy them their lot,
those meteorologists, not
even with their fancy maps and
flashing radar screens.
Their job is to point out
what we humans rarely
want to see – there is
little we control, and
nothing stays the
same for very long.
From One Soul: More Poems from the Heart of Yoga by Danna Faulds
It will soon be the end of summer. There have been endless days of sunshine this summer. The staff and I were apprehensive that Tropical Storm Hannah would be too severe to hold the church service today or might have at least downed trees and caused power outages. But here we are! The earth has seemed out of balance recently with hurricanes making landfall destructively. In early summer, tornadoes were cutting swathes of damage across usually calm countryside in the middle of the country. Some of the earth’s imbalance is man caused and some is natural. Nineteen square miles of Canada’s Arctic ice has broken away and is floating dangerously in the Arctic Ocean. (Can you imagine the size of a 19-mile ice-floe?!) Where is there balance in the Earth? Has there ever been balance in nature? Perhaps balance in nature is like balance in our lives—it comes and it goes.
One of the hardest things in life, I believe, is to lead a “balanced life.” Whether we are working hard at a job or working hard at raising children, maintaining a balanced life is equally difficult. Even if we are retired, there may still be difficulties feeling “balanced.” We talk about having a “balanced diet” or a “balanced exercise program, or a “balanced budget.” We’d like to have a balance between work and family, activity and relaxation, giving and receiving, body-mind-spirit, and so on. Yoga practitioners are taught that cultivating balance in their lives is a fundamental concept of yoga practice, along with self observation.
I was delighted and surprised to read that one of my colleagues, a mother of young children, has adopted “balance” as a spiritual practice. It makes such a lot of sense. (See References: “Balance” by Susan Manker-Seale.) We come to church (or become ministers!) to have some connection to a spiritual life and then we find that the act of coming to church can become part of both the balance and the imbalance! So, sometimes we don’t come to church to try to get some balance. Isn’t it true? Be honest! It was true for me once. But, *I* must be honest and say that once I got to church and relaxed into the service, I was always glad I’d made the effort for I did find balance.
My daughter and I went to church for many years together and afterwards we usually had lunch somewhere to extend our Sunday experience. I’ll always treasure those Sundays. She reminded me recently how important that Sunday experience was for her. I realize now that going to church was part of regaining my balance if only for a while and it gave my daughter and I balance in our relationship. It’s amazing how having something similar to share can give balance to a relationship.
But I found “balance” in many other things; one was my early morning walk in my neighborhood when few people were yet awake and again in the evening after dinner when sometimes my son would accompany me even in the dark, sometimes on his bicycle, and we’d chat—what a treasure this seems to me now.
I was always taking workshops with various spiritual teachers, searching for a spiritual practice that would bring me progress spiritually. I didn’t know what spiritual progress would look like, but I thought that if I kept exploring, I would know when I found it. In retrospect, I realize that in spite of all the exploring, it was the quality of everyday life that was gradually being enhanced. It was the pottering in the garden, polishing the brass, watching the children doing their dancing and karate lessons, laughing with them and sympathizing with their struggle—all this helped bring me forward. Even the ups and downs of the corporate world and the relationships with colleagues offered learning and insights. But it wasn’t until the day that a visiting minister said in a sermon, “My colicky baby was asleep after hours of crying and I was chopping the broccoli and I suddenly I realized, “Oh, this is our seventh principle—the interdependent web of which we are a part!” A light-bulb went off in my head too! Chopping broccoli would never be the same for me again. Not only was this act an opportunity to realize our connection with all life but this was the spiritual connection I was seeking with everyday life. In this awareness was that “balance” that I craved……. Did you know that God has trouble with balance as well? Perhaps you’ve heard this story:
God was missing for six days. On the seventh day, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting. He inquired of God. "Where have you been?" God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction, and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made…. a planet, with Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."
"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused. God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor…. God continued pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice." Impressed, the Archangel pointed to a land area and said, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God, "That's Washington State, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills and plains… The people from Washington State are going to be handsome, intelligent, and humorous, sociable, hardworking, high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats, and carriers of peace."
Archangel Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God? You said there would be balance." God smiled,
"There is another Washington...wait until you see the idiots I put there."
Looks like I’ve just used up my Voting Day joke!
We cannot live a balanced life all the time. Even if we do have a spiritual practice, life is different every day and we are different every day. But we can have a practice to remind us to find balance in whatever we are doing.
Thich Naht Hanh, the Buddhist monk who is an expert in mindfulness, tells us that we have to practice mindfulness all of our lives. I once shared with you that he told his monks in the monastery that when the phone rings not to dash to answer it but think, “Ah, this is an opportunity to practice compassionate listening with whomever is one the other end of the line.” He counseled them to walk mindfully towards the phone and to lift it with a sense of expectation. (Are you thinking, “What! While I’m preparing myself for the encounter, the call will go to voicemail!?” Seriously though, it would be really useful for us to do this, for in this way, we’ll find balance in our lives and perhaps others find balance in theirs.
My colleague who has “Balance” as a spiritual practice reminds herself to slow down, pay attention, breathe deeply and remember that we are connected to all the tasks, the things of the task, and the dance of relationships along the way. She, too, has attended dozens of classes on spiritual practices and she bids us to allow ourselves to be “…called back into balance, back…to the awareness of the continuous presence of the environment around us and within us….We are called to remember our relationships and our dependencies… and to do so with wonder and appreciation.” (p. 14, Alexander)
The various spiritual practices we embrace, even temporarily, will keep us on track for engaging our inner and outer worlds. The simplest one, however, is the self-reminder to find the balance in the task at hand for in that awareness of balance is the spirit we seek and our connection with all that is. So if someone asks you, “What is your spiritual practice?” You can respond, “My spiritual practice is finding balance in my everyday life. What’s yours?” Even the weekend meteorologist must find his or her balance in the art of their forecasting for our sake. May you find yours!
References
“Balance” by Susan Manker-Seale in Everyday Spiritual Practice: Simple Pathways for Enriching Your Life, Alexander, Scott W., Editor. Boston: Skinner House Books, 1999.
© The Rev. Ann C. Fox