Meditation on the Meditation- Eagle Pose

Though this is the last of the warm-up postures (before "party time")it also feels like the beginning of the balancing series. I struggle with balance on one foot; it does not come naturally to me and it makes me wonder why. Do I have weak muscles? Do I have vestibular difficulties? Am I just a spaz? What is up with my balance? I have not gained much insight into answers to these questions over the last year and a half.

Balance is a funny thing. Too much effort or to little makes me totter. Too much concentration, too little. . . Sometimes I'll be balancing fine and then all of a sudden. . .SPAZ! It is a delicate, ever-changing state.

So it is in life. We are always searching for balance: between work and rest, seriousness and play, sleeping and waking, eating for taste and eating for health, diligence and letting things go, taking chances and playing it safe. . . These too are in constant flux and seem impossible to obtain. We may find balance in one or two areas for a little while but then things change and we're out of balance in those areas. We may find balance in new areas or not, and then regain lost balance in old areas. Balance is in constant flux.

I love this poem:
Beware, O wanderer, the road is walking, too
said Rilke one day to no one in particular
As good poets everywhere address the six directions
If you can't bow you're dead meat. You'll break like uncooked spaghetti
Listen to the gods, they are shouting in your ear every second

This seems to be the nature of seeking balance- you are changing, the world is changing- it requires constant awareness and the willingness to change.

Eagle Pose is a reminder of the tenuousness of balance- that it can be lost at any moment.

The teachers say about balancing postures "if you fall out, you're human. If you get back in, you're a yogi!" A yogi, one who seeks union, is seeking, keeps trying even when union or balance is elusive.

So I keep practicing, keep getting back in the posture, keep living, loving, working, sleeping, waking, dreaming, holding on, letting go, trying, living, living, living.