Claim Your Whole Self

Rich coffee. Turning leaves out the window. Thoughts and prayers rushing about~

I have often pictured many areas of my life as a balancing act. Not too much of one thing or another. Time alone and time with others. Time to work and time to play. Time for investing in a community and giving to others unselfishly. Likewise, a time to accept the love and support of a community. Yet, when contemplating balance I picture the tight rope walker. Swaying from one side to the other, she is focused and in a constant state of adjustment. Denying the pull of gravity in one direction or another. Is this balance? Finding too much influence in one area, we must deny that entirely to regain stasis? In my exploring for healthy balance, completely denying or resisting parts of my life does not satisfy!
Rather, I would prefer to think of this life balance as needing to embrace one part a little more to compensate for other parts. Think of it as picking up a little more truth in opposite areas of your life. Too much in one direction calls you to look in another to gather a different truth to find balance. Now, logic would tell you that this might lead to trying to gather too much! I don't believe this. Truth in life does not weigh down, but rather it lifts us up. I believe that we need to fully embrace the different truths and realities that exist in ourselves and in our lives.
Henri Nouwen talks balance in The Inner Voice of Love ~

There is within you a lamb and a lion. Spiritual maturity is the ability to let lamb and lion lie down together. Your lion is your adult, aggressive self. It is your initiative-taking and decision-making self. But there is also your fearful, vulnerable lamb, the part of you that needs affection, support, affirmation, and maturing. 

When you heed only your lion, you will find yourself overextended and exhausted. When you take notice only of your lamb, you will easily become a victim of your need for other people's attention. The art of spiritual living is to fully claim both your lion and your lamb. Then you can act assertively without denying your own needs. And you can ask for affection and care without betraying your talent to offer leadership.

I love this image of fully claiming and embracing every part of yourself. To acknowledge that each truth, emotion, motivation, and contemplation is a valuable and a worthy part of yourself. Our response to this idea may well be fear. It is a massive undertaking to simultaneously let go of every counter inhibition and wholly embrace yourself. There are truths that will trouble and challenge us - often shaking us to our core. The reward for living wholly embracing our entire being is feeling an immense sense of self worthiness. This is growth and healthy balance.

Music floats through the air as I sip from my warm coffee mug. This lyric rises above~ "But a fear, turned to faith, comes to love." Pray that this be so for all of us.