I feel like a tightrope artist struggling to walk the fine line of life.
Not just a lone tightrope artist finding her balance without an audience but one who is trying to navigate in between a myriad of other tightrope artists, each of us attempting not to fall down. Life really is a balancing act, and not just because of all the daily tasks we each have loaded on our plates.
Life is a gentle precarious balance between right and wrong, love and hate, acceptable and unacceptable, pleasure and pain, righteousness and irreverence, wants and needs.
Every single thing we say and do has the potential to hurt someone or to make them feel happy. The potential to be viewed as right or wrong. The potential to be hailed and brilliant or to be regarded as dumb. The tricky part is that you can perceive something or mean something one way and it can be perceived in a totally opposite way.
And when then happens you get blindsided and knocked down, yet somehow you have to find the strength to get back up on that fine line of life and regain your composure and balance. It’s not an easy feat since it can happen quite often and each time you fall or get pushed over, you are left with invisible scars that leave you more afraid and more vulnerable.
I think of all the times I have caused others pain and all the times I have been hurt. I worry about the scars I’m inadvertently inflicting on my children because I’m not skilled enough to stay balanced on that fine line and because I stray from that fine line time and time again. But I’m human and need to learn to forgive myself.
Walking that fine line is scary.
How often do you fall down?
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by our contributor, Susie Newday in Israel. You can find her on her blog New Day New Lesson.
Photo Credit: Tauno Tõhk / 陶诺 ? Flickr Creative Commons
Probably quite a lot. Everyday I find I am challenged with the words I use and my actions. I like to think before I do and am aware of how others can be affected.
Just this morning I was pondering a similar question. When our children are small often just “kissing the boo-boo” makes everything better. Unfortunately when the children get to be teens and young adults, things are not so easily remedied! The rope I feel I’m balanced on at the moment (more than the others) is; do I “interfere” in their relationship with a significant other, or do I keep quiet, even though I know things will end in heartbreak? 🙁
Don’t get me wrong, both my kids are in long-term relationships with good people. There’s no “abuse” happening (if there was, darn the rope, I’d be in there like a fury!). It’s just that I’m fortunate in that both my kids confide in me, but that’s also a burden. How can I NOT interfere when I know they’re upset by something their significant other has done or has failed to do? On the flip side of that, is it betraying their confidence if I have a heart-to heart chat with their partner?
My grandfather was right when he said that when children are little the problems are little, but the older they get the bigger the problems … and then when they get married it’s double the problems! 🙁
I find it so difficult to always anticipate how others will react. I hate the feeling of days later thinking about something and thinking, “Oh!! I should have offered them this. Or I should have suggested I could help by doing that..” Sometimes the thoughts don’t always cross my mind when I need them!!
Thank you for writing this, Susie!!
Jen 🙂