Thoughts about balance

I was struck yesterday at my yoga class, and then today at our track training, by a thought I had when we were working on our balance. In both cases, we were doing the tree pose (one foot on the ground, the other foot on your calf or thigh depending on how comfortable you are with your balance and flexibility), and as I watched both my teacher and my coach, it occurred to me that balance is not the ability to stand without falling.

Instead, I noticed the minute adjustments that my teacher's ankle went through, and my coach's, and observed my own ankle's adjustments - more pronounced, but still keeping me from falling. And it is precisely those adjustments that creates balance. It's just that for some people, their balance is so fine-tuned that the adjustments are almost imperceptible to anyone observing them.

It seems to me that the same thing could be said about life. Keeping things in balance isn't a static thing, where you set a schedule and it's done. Something always changes, or gets in the way. It's holding to the principle of what you're trying to achieve, and then making minute adjustments along the way to keep you on the path where you want to go.