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Asymmetric and Wonderful

A recurring phrase of “it’s not fair” screeches through my mind much too often.  It is progress that I am not saying it aloud less and less.  Still, the fact that I keep thinking it, I keep believing it when it doesn't inform my life today.  With growth, perspective and paths change.  I am looking for ways to align my current state and my beliefs (stated and affirmed mentally). 

While musing about the idea of fairness, I realized the depth of my commitment to said idea.  I constantly try to make things even, to the point of obsession.  I look for evenness, a leveling of effort, appearance, anything on the left, must even on the right. 

I have even struggled with physical therapy because it addresses specific problems on one side of my body.  Emotionally I want to do the exercises on both sides even though that is not what will help.  And the reason I need to do exercises on one side is because things are not even.  They are not balanced.  Hence the injury and damage on one side in one place and different on the other. 

I am looking for perfect symmetry in an asymmetric world.  The entire universe is uneven.  No feature of nature, no physical body, no personality, nothing in the cosmos is balanced.  Asymmetry is the order of the world.   But I have been working every day on an subconscious and conscious level to make it symmetric, even, fair. 

It would be a frustrating experience if all of us had to be constantly trying to make the world come out even.  If we were all running around straightening pictures, adjusting our glasses and smiles, trimming trees, painting houses,…an endless round of useless tasks and not a moment to enjoy the reality of nature.  Nature is perfectly balanced yet asymmetric.  Not random, yet surprising, stark, striking, precious, and beautiful. 

In order to help my alignment of belief and state, I am turning my phrasing to the positive.  When I hear the running steps of 'not fair', I say with joy and wonder, "it's asymmetric".  And I look for the beauty--the branch shaped like a hand, the twinkle in an eye, the shining star, the pretty cloud, the smile of a child--I would not have noticed and feel awe.
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  1. Dennis TardanJune 15, 2014 at 9:08 AM

    Balance is so key to my life -- my physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. At 66, I my human life is asymmetric, with fewer years left to live than I have lived so far. And, yet, if I stay focused on keeping my balance in those three ways, I easily and naturally notice the beautiful rhythms of life and my fellow tribesmen and women who are on this journey with me. Balance. Thanks, Melissa.

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