Monday, September 12, 2005

Life is all about balance; psychologically and physically. Physically, it's located about two inches below your navel and inside you about halfway between your front and your back - it's the point where gravity is pulling the strongest - your center of gravity. And you may not realize it, but you're constantly adjusting and readjusting your balance as you stand, while your body makes the most minute corrections.

And why shouldn't you be adjusting and readjusting? While in the very place you are standing or sitting, you are rotating around the earth's axis at a speed somewhere between (depending on your latitude) 760 and 940 mph. That is like breaking the sound barrier without even leaving your seat. Couple that with the movement of your planet which is comfortably cruising around the Sun at 66,000 mph (1.5 million miles a day) within a solar system that is sailing around the Milky Way at 486,000 mph (135 miles per second). And it has been predicted that the galaxy you find yourself in right now is also traveling at 1,000,000 miles per hour. Literally breath-taking, isn't it?

So, back to the beginning where Life is all about balance. Life remains a constant series of movements in all different directions throughout all our days. Oscillating, speeding, sailing. Movement. While sleeping, even our brain is speeding off to new destinations and dreams. So, taking into account all this internal and external movements and speeds, is it any wonder we sometimes find ourselves a little off balance?

When someone accidently pushes you, you right yourself very quickly. When you stumble on the sidewalk, you correct yourself immediately or you'll suffer the consequences of suddent impact trauma on the cement below. It's a natural reaction on our part. We may feel silly and vulnerable for a very short time, but after that, we continue on.

Human life movements, intermingled with Nature-al (natural) life movements, has a way of walking gracefully together and - at times - colliding disastrously. So is the case with our friends and human family in the Gulf Delta (Louisiana and Mississippi). Simple but powerful movements of Nature colliding with daily human movements... and the results for humans has been catastrophic. Their center of gravity, their balance, their sense of an "normal" life has been thrown off completely. Spiraling out of control in one of the worst disasters this nation has witnessed. And now it's time to right ourselves...

If you haven't already, consider taking a moment from this busily spinning merry-go-round to slow down long enough to consider and care:

• Consider giving of your time and funds to help out those caught in this horrible moment spinning out of control.
• Consider hosting a garage sale and donating all proceeds to the hurricane relief funds.
• Consider taking up a neighborhood collection and donating the proceeds.
• Consider calling the American Red Cross to see what supplies or services or funds are needed.
• Care enough to take a moment each day to pray for the restoration and revival of not just the physical surroundings, but more importantly the physical lives of those affected by this disaster.
• Care enough to stay informed about relief efforts when the media eventually find the subject matter not worthy of the top story each evening.
• Care enough to be mindful of those in your own community who need your assistance throughout the calendar year.

We, my friend, are interconnected as a race, as a humanity, and when disaster hits, we feel the pain and loss. We feel it about two inches below our navel and inside us about halfway between our front and our back... it's our collective center of gravity going askew - let's find our balance again.