Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Balance

A friend said that I needed to exercise more 'balance,' in my life, which is what this blog is about. I thought about it. I've made sure to include rest (check), fun activities (check), spiritual (check), balanced diet (check), friends/family quality time (check)...so what gives? Why do I feel so stressed out?

Let's just say that you can live a BALANCED life if all elements are equal. Let any ONE of those things get out of balance and guess what? Does life compensate for loss? Sometimes it does, but most of the time it does not. Loss is, well, loss. Gone. With the wind. Hubby lost his business in the recession and our income has not been the same, yet our outgo seems to remain as it was. WHO is going to balance that and/or HOW?

I understand the 'easy' fixes... the things people say to 'make it all better,' the platitudes repeated by well-meaning people who don't really have an answer or a solution to their own problems, let alone yours or mine. But platitudes and good tidings just don't work for some folks who are still struggling and have little to look forward to except maybe being able to BALANCE the bottom line at some point in the future.

I am beyond working a full time job. I have always been a very generous person (so has hubby), but we are both beyond being able to help out friends and family like we used to. I have to face it. I'm a senior citizen who is trying to BALANCE everything economically and still trying to enjoy life without being a burden on others.

I am, however, very thankful for many things. As I write this, everyone in the family is basically healthy (so far), we are still planning our camping trip, and we can meet most of our expenses. We have to juggle a bit, but we're still eating healthy. I just wish we could return to the 'old' days before the recession brought us to our knees.

So, maintaining some kind of BALANCE is a little dicey these days. I make sure the absolutes are covered, but hey, I've reached the age of eligibility for SSI, which will kick in soon.

They say life is hard and then you die. Geez. At this age I already know that life is hard...but it has also been fun, fulfilling, awesome, exciting, and then some. I just wish that the recession would go away. Better yet, that I could win the lottery. Now THAT would really balance the scales, wouldn't it?