“Balance”

Yes. Balance. As a word balance is underrated. And probably a little bit under used. It’s not a sexy word. In fact it sounds pretty boring. It has never been  prevalent in pop culture. However, balance is a versatile word having the ability to be used as a noun, verb or adjective.

Don’t be fooled though. Balance is an essential ingredient to better quality of life. I had to learn this lesson the hard way, meaning I had to experience certain periods of imbalance to learn with parts of my life before I understood it’s importance.

Start with my diet. From my mid-teens to my early twenties my diet was terrible. Seriously. M&Ms, ice cream sandwiches and ginger ale sodas for breakfast some days. Carry out lunch with yellow Hostess cupcakes almost everyday. Snickers or honeybuns for afternoon snacks. And that was during the work week. Don’t even get me started on the weekend diet. At 23 years of age my doctor told me that if I kept eating like that I wouldn’t have to worry about body mass index at 24 because it wouldn’t matter………and then he fortunately sent me to a nutritionist. I was instructed to drink a glass of water before every meal and alternate fruits and sweets. Lost 17 pounds in three months. Balance. Glad those days are over.

And then there was the matter of sleep. I had to be up by 6:30am for work and routinely went to bed between 11pm and 1am. Around the same age (23) a fitness instructor encouraged me to try to go to bed at the same time (10pm) each night. I didn’t do that but I started going to bed by 10pm on Sundays. No TV, no music, no phones. No, um, social activities either……..at least not until the morning. Nothing. Changed my energy and focus for the entire week. Balance.

Look, I was not raised in the church. I am no theologian or Biblical Scholar. However, I do believe in the power of spirituality. I go to church occasionally and fellowship virtually almost weekly. I read scripture daily usually starting my morning with the Word of the day.  This fuels my positive energy all day. Not preaching to you just sharing with you. And honestly with all of the hedonistic heathenly things I’ve done in my life I could probably use a few more daily scriptures. Balance.

That’s it. Now that I’ve spent some time staring at these dull words I need a picture to provide some variety and a point of emphasis. This heavenly photo of Ms. Lupita Nyong’o just might do it. Praise the Lord.

You see, balance.