Off Balance

Off Balance

“Equilibrium is neither the goal nor the fate of living systems, simple because as open systems they partner with their environment…To stay viable, open systems maintain a state of non-equilibrium, keeping themselves off balance so that the system can change and grow.” 
                               Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and The New Science
 
Each step you take
is a falling through space,
off balance,
in process,
moving through open air.
 
Yearning for equilibrium
you reach for the cup,
the coffee,
the cocoa.
The cup falls,
crashes,
a million pieces on the floor.
 
Venerating equilibrium,
you pick up the pieces,
vowing to reconstruct
the precious vessel
of a your life.
 
Hearing the wind, the stream,
the invitation to walk,
to think,
the Spring is coming,
where chaos
and the earth herself
contrive to order.
 
Loss of balance
looks like the prerequisite,
the step
or the misstep,
when nothing is certain
yielding the movement
that sustains your life. 
 

Cold comes again, with rain,
freezing a moment in time
so you can think
so you can re-calibrate.
Change and growth
the result
of sitting still,
not in balance
but in breath,
in life,
a living,
breathing,
growing
alive
life.