Balance Law #1

Balance comes from knowing your center, and staying there, while moving through the world at the speed of daily life.

Cynthia F. Davidson, from the first card in the Wisdom Wheel deck

In 1998, when I wrote those words for the Balance Law card, I didn't know what I was talking about. My life was a better example of imbalance. I hadn't found my center yet either.

But I became a student of Balance. It was that or else become ill, like many of the people around me back then. By the following year, the craziness of that phase of my life was over. I'd relocated to a small, quiet island, and set up TouchStoneCenter, a spiritual retreat sanctuary, where I still live and work today, with my husband Malcolm. 

 Touch the stones to center yourself. It is time to sit in a circle and learn the Laws of the Universe. If you will do this, you can become a touchstone for others. 

TouchStoneCenter motto 

So, this is how you begin a year on the Wisdom Wheel. You start with the Law of Balance. Learn to give up what prevents it. 
For the next 10 days, make Balance your watch word. 
Ask for it, first thing every morning and last thing every night. 
Write the word down, in your journal, on a rock or a Post It note. 
Talk about it with friends and family. 
Find your indestructible inner center.
Be on the lookout for news stories that celebrate it, or warn by demonstrating its opposite. 
See what happens when you invite the wisdom of this Law into your life. 
Share your learning here with us. 
If you'd like a set of Wisdom Wheel cards or stones, visit our website, www.thewisdomwheel.com and click on the Welcome button.

To stay on track, here are some more bits of wisdom, from others who came to believe in Balance. 

If gravity is the glue that holds the universe together,

Balance is the key that unlocks its secrets.

Balance applies to our body, mind and emotions,

to all levels of our being, anything we do,

we can overdo or under do,

and if that pendulum swings too far to one side,

it will inevitable swing to the other.

Dan Millman, The Laws of Spirit

Also known as the law of Equalities or Fair Exchange, Balance is a universal law that supersedes all of man’s laws… 

Each thought must be balanced by whomever creates it. This is divine wisdom….

The forces of Nature are in a state of equilibrium but the constant oscillation keeps the universe in motion, perpetually active. 

…The vital thing is that this imbalance should not be too great or it will lead to total destruction… 

Learn to work with the forces and do not sway too far from that golden middle line.

Margo Kirtikar, Ph.D. Flowing With Universal Laws and Cosmic and Universal Laws

Balance requires that we recognize when we are taking too much, and when we are taking too little; when we are giving too much, and when we need to take more. Mutuality reminds us that while each individual is unique and each of us needs to affirm our inner wholeness, we also need to build relationships that honor the wholeness of other people and of the material world around us. These two principles of balance and mutuality are shaping what I call a new economics of empowerment.

Barbara Brandt, Whole Life Economics

We become our own enemy when we are thrown out of Balance by anger, hatred, grief or any other intense emotion. We are for the time being obsessed by something alien.

Paramananda, cited in Esther M. Sternberg’s book The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health & Emotions

Health is traditionally defined as a state of perfect balance; and healing is that which brings about that kind of balance once again.

William A. McGarey, M.D. The Edgar Cayce Remedies

 Someone who is a manic-depressive is swinging from one pole to another to such an extent that they are out of control… Binging and starving are opposite poles. They are a manifestation of feeling out of control and therefore trying to control whatever is possible. Our aim is to Balance all aspects of our lives. If any qualities are out of Balance, we are called upon to re-center ourselves and make new life choices.

Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws

Centering is the image I use for the Process of Balance which will enable us to step along that thread, feeling it not as a thread but a sphere. It will, it is hoped, help us walk through extremes with an incorruptible instinct for wholeness, finding our way continuous, self-completing.

Mary Caroline Richards, Centering

The spiral form invites both halves of our brains to be involved: the understanding that comes through the left half of the brain comes through our linear mind, which absorbs information through words and logic; the right brain is in touch with images, sensations, memories and feelings that are personal and collective, in time and timeless, and it imposes no order or logic on them. An ‘aha!’ recognition comes when there is a crossover from right to left or left to right… we then know something on multiple levels and are affected or moved by what we know.

Thom Hartmann in Walking Your Blues Away

When I am in balance, there is no struggle.

Kerri Brennan in Visual Journaling

The key issue is balance… Quality…comes from balance, physically, mentally and emotionally. It may be immensely rewarding to have built a major organization, but if that is accomplished through the sacrifice of personal health or losing one’s family, then what kind of reward is it? …the sacrifice of balance is never appropriate…balance preserves the identity, the spirit and the heart…There have been far too many examples of unbalanced vision already.

David Gaster, New Traditions in Business

                                                                             

A person should always carry two notes in his pockets - one with the words, ‘For my sake alone the world was created,‘ and another with the words, ‘I am as lowly as the dust.’

Rabbi Simcha Bunem of Przysucha, quoted in Kol Simcha

The key word is Balance. No Navajo believes that if they walk in Beauty they will be eternally surrounded by bliss. The idea is to walk the narrow path between the negative and the positive, keeping yourself centered.

David Chethlahe Paladin (1926-1984) cited by Joel & Michelle Levey in their book Living in Balance

Spirituality is a matter of Balance.
We envision, we long for,
we act and through this Process
we take our place and our power in this world.

Christina Baldwin, Calling the Circle

That which is out of Balance will not endure. Only by being balanced within ourselves can we hope to Balance the world.

Anodea Judith, books include Wheels of Life

Balance, it is never a given, it can never be held on to, it is always balancing. It arises from the graceful chance that efforts can prepare.

Jurgen W. Kremer, Ph.D., books include Blackfoot Ways of Knowing

Stay tuned. In ten days, we'll take up the second Law of Awareness.