It’s Monday morning and I am making my way from my bedroom to my home office to brainstorm and research ideas for my next blog post.
As I go to sit down in my chair, I drop for what feels like half a metre onto my backside. Someone has been sitting in my chair and they have adjusted the height, and the back, into a reclining position more suited to a boy racer.

I shake off the annoyance, adjust my chair, and start sifting through dozens of podcasts. I am looking for something interesting I heard last week (and should have written down at the time), only to be interrupted by the question, “Are you going to be using your computer today?” 

After getting rid of that distraction I get back to the podcasts. But now I am getting a bit hot and irritated as I am still wearing my dressing gown and pyjamas. The aforementioned chair adjuster swooped into the bathroom before I even had a chance. 

No matter, because now there is a request to demonstrate how to use the new blender. I deliver the instructions and walk back to my office with slightly elevated blood pressure. I sit down in my chair again and play the paused podcast, but my attention is divided as I can hear shouting over the sound of the blender from down the hallway. The new blender has malfunctioned. 

This is no ordinary Monday morning. This is day 2 of another Auckland lockdown. And this is why I found it fitting to write a post about living an imbalanced life.

We seem to be in pursuit of ticking all the boxes and living our lives in perfect balance. I have come to the realisation that trying to have balance can sometimes feel as stressful as having a bit of chaos in my day.

The speaker in the podcast I was trying to find was talking about the different seasons or stages in life where things might be a bit imbalanced. Your focus might be on a work project, so the housework has to slide that week. Or your teenager’s extracurricular activities might have you running around half the evening, so every meal might not be a ‘five plus a day’ or even home-cooked.

Balance is defined as ‘An even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.’ 

So if we imagine a set of vintage balance scales that tip like a seesaw from side to side depending on the weight that is in each cup. The scales will move when there is an imbalance, and when the scales are balanced they will be static. Static means; immobile, nonmoving, standing, stationary. 

Life is not static, we are constantly moving. This week won’t look like last week for me, and next week won’t look like the one I am currently living. The scales will keep moving (especially during lockdown), and the best I can do is be flexible enough to keep moving with them.