Is it Balance that We Really Crave?

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the book launch party for Joanne Molinaro who is the cookbook author of The Korean Vegan.  

I’ve not only been drawn to her work in recent years because of her fantastic, gut-healing recipes, but because of her authentic writing style and inspiring storytelling.

Her work is a beautiful expression of ancestral healing just as much as it is about flavorful and healthy foods.

The very first topic that Joanne discussed at the gathering, while being interviewed by Eric Kim of The New York Times Cooking, is how her success was directly related to one of the biggest failures in her life.  

Without that failure and loss, she would never have had the fulfilling life that she enjoys today.

I was also struck by how she talked about writing and cooking as wildly different activities that serve one another.  

Cooking has always relieved her stress while writing stresses her out; but while cooking is both her joy and muse, writing is her purpose.

She was not just put on this planet to write another cookbook, but to use her love of homemade Korean and Vegan cooking to make it more accessible to a person who might otherwise be intimidated by a list of ingredients they'd never heard of.  

This is how she has woven together a harmonious synergy between her two biggest passions.

With the New Moon in Libra this week, I’ve been reflecting on my relationship to balance and got curious about whether it’s a balanced life that we crave or is it really a harmonious life?

To me balance is fleeting, a pause almost, before a new momentum builds and perhaps in a new direction.

Harmony, however, allows for, and sometimes even enjoys, the messy imbalances of life because that’s when we're evolving and growing.  

When we pass through the threshold of the spring and fall equinoxes with the yin and the yang, feminine and masculine, active and passive coming into balance, their relationships don’t stop there.  They are always in relationship with one another.  It’s just that at any given moment one is expanding while the other is contracting and vice versa.  

This is how we can grow in one area and coast in another until we are ready to pivot our focus.

This is also how when you're struggling in one area of your life, harmony will say it’s okay because you are resourced in another area of your life.  And by appreciating how you’re resourced, you can find ways to trust the process even when a part of your life is hurting.

Not every area of life can be perfectly balanced or provide everything we need to feel fulfilled, and sometimes it's the imbalances that get us on track to a level of fulfillment we couldn't have imagined.

With the New Moon in Libra this week ask yourself:

• Is there something that’s draining your energy or stressing you out?
• Is it time to release it once and for all and be okay with closing the door on it?
• Or is this challenge really a gift in disguise for learning and growth?
• What other elements of your life elevate your energy so you can feel resourced to meet those challenges?

Fulfillment isn’t an either/or equation.  

You can be angry or grieving over one area of your life and still find joy, pleasure and fulfillment in another area.

Harmony allows it all to be part of the mix.

It’s about blending your life together like a delicious, homemade dish that includes your own unique flavors and textures that no one else can replicate.

The Dress Rehearsal Zone

When I look back on my years as a performer, the ultimate for me was to be dancing on stage.  The energy exchange with the audience was exhilarating because it was the moment when I could let go of perfecting the details of the choreography and just surrender to the joy of the moment. 

There was a depth of faith in myself and everyone else on the stage and a certainty that it would all be okay, even if something went wrong, because no matter what, the show had to keep going. 

I would experience a fluidity within myself that I didn’t during auditions or rehearsals. 

Before a performance, however, there’s a dress rehearsal.  This is the zone where the logistics of the performance space are worked out, but it’s also when the focus shifts from the technique of the dance to channeling the spirit of the choreography and music.

This was the zone where I could release my perfectionist and shed my fears and worries over what could go wrong and instead allow excited anticipation to take over.

The annual new moon in Pisces this week comes around just like a dress rehearsal. 

It is the zone just before mother nature comes alive in the spring to express her own beauty like a work of art.

This year we also have an unusual parade of planets in the sky with many of them in Pisces, amplifying the wonder and awe that the mysteries of life inspire within us.

Pisces reminds us that there is a “co” in co-creation.

When we remember that healing and growth don’t happen by personal will alone, we can call upon support from the divine or higher dimensions of life in whatever way is meaningful to our individual beliefs.

The archetype of Pisces invites us to explore both our uncertainty and our blind spots.

Where is fear and worry holding you back?

Where is your resistance to the challenges you face?

Where might your clarity and wisdom get clouded by the illusions of tribal thinking?

How can you release those fears, challenges and confusion to discover a more neutral perspective around them?

When we ask for clarity and support, the synchronicities that follow can be quite wondrous, just as we witness the magic of what happens to a seed when it receives the nourishment it needs to grow and bloom.

Just as dress rehearsals were a threshold through which I could step into a dimension that amplified my joy and passion for dance, these final weeks of winter are the threshold through which our inner being can flow with the energies of nature and find inspiration.

Whether you’re experiencing a challenging time this year or on a path of achieving certain goals, this is a great time to recommit to your healing and growth, remembering that when personal will and divine will are in full collaboration, clarity, courage, wisdom and inspiration emerge to allow for the show of life to go on.