Life, Work and Balance.

At the heart of the experience of my life, I struggle, as many of us do, with bringing balance to my life and my work. It seems like this sort of struggle is not personal on one level, but it is terribly personal from another perspective.

These last few months I've spent attending to many concerns: the challenges of some very specific business issues against the existing backdrop of the overall struggle to maintain and sustain.  Real change at home...kids leaving for college, the challenges as family members grow and change, my mom's passing, the changes and concerns of family at several levels.  My health, my vitality, and where to put my attention, how to stay passionate about life at each moment - especially when so many of those moments are working moments around which my personal choices are often secondary to the needs of the 'enterprise' or the family, but the demand to find balance is never far away.

All this personal experience is present for me against the very stark background of 2 great realities we face as a nation....the disgrace of our national approach to health care, made even more shameful by the lack of political will to engage the issues genuinely, and the havoc wreaked on our economy by a greater interest in greed than in balance, superimposed on a distain for service at so many levels. 

Its against all of this that I write or don't write each day, that I work productively or minimally, or that I am available to serve with strength or not.  I know that my personal practice has served me well in sustaining at so many levels.

It's no wonder that so many of us are struggling with our health, challenged in ways that have long since passed through the healthy challenge of life into the fatigue of chronic stress. Making a life against this backdrop can be daunting. I am grateful each day for the community of good people I share this jouney with, and the opportunity to do good work, work that is worthy of my time and effort in the multi-dimensional rewards it provides.

With Gratitude....

Rich