If I were a tightrope walker (I am not a tightrope walker), I would say that balance requires awareness and presence.

At least, at first.

If you've learned to walk a tightrope (or ride a bike), you'll know that eventually the micro-movements required to keep you upright become automatic and unthinking. I'm not sure if life balance is the same - perhaps it is for some, though I haven't found it to be so, or perhaps there are too many variables for it to be a fair comparison.

Given how popular the phrase 'do it anyway' is, I imagine that works for a lot of people, but for me - even thinking about that just makes me kind of tired. Life is busy and fast, and getting faster all the time. Being an adult sometimes feels like an endurance marathon where someone keeps moving the finish line further and further away. Do we really need to push more, and to do things scared?

I wonder if the answer might be no, at least, not all the time. Or maybe no, not that scared.

Have you ever noticed how other than the horizon, if you're looking out to sea or across a plain, nature doesn't really do straight lines?

If you lie in the grass under a tree and look up at the canopy it's a chaotic jumble of erratic angles and curves. Stones aren't made like bricks, they're tumbled and wind scoured and sun baked and no two are the same. Trees aren't made like walls, they are drawn out of the ground by the sun, bent by the wind, made green by the rain or water tapped by deep roots. They grow in response to their environment.

So do we - we grow in response to our environment.

What if (see what I did there) we stopped playing the what-if-anxiety game, and instead learned to transform it into what-if-curiosity?

What if (see? I’m doing it again…) we stopped using ‘what if’ to keep ourselves small and safe, and instead used ‘what if’ to encourage ourselves and each other out of our comfort zones, to expand our horizons, to explore what might be possible?