Equilibrium

EQUILIBRIUM: (noun) balance . symmetry . equality . evenness

There’s a lot of excitement associated with the launch of a new book, and I have been enjoying every minute of the launch of Dark Days on the Fairest Isle.  Launch day was January 31 when the book was made available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. I was elated when I received a colorful “Happy Publication Day!” email from the Marketing Department at my publisher. And friends have been very supportive with their telephone calls and congratulations. I know that all of you, my blog readers, will be getting the book. I believe in you.  And when you finish reading it, please write a review. I will be most grateful to you if you do so.

This week’s word, equilibrium, came to me  a few days ago after Douglas,  my older son, forwarded to me two e-mails that were heart-warming and humbling.  He had given a copy of Mr.Michael: Journeying with My Special Son  to one of his clients who has two  youngsters with autism, and the dear  mother wrote to express her gratitude to him for the book. The heartfelt contents of her e-mails jolted me into a stark reality.  While I had been focused on Dark Days and its coming publication, the copy of  Mr. Michael was doing its silent work, making a huge difference in one woman’s life.  I share parts of both of her  e-mails here.

“I can’t tell you enough how much this book has ministered to me, to us as a family. It has met its objective.”

“I have marked up the book. It is filled with so much hope and wisdom. It was exactly what I needed.”

It is humbling to receive a response like this to something I have written. What the comments have done is to make me realize that   equilibrium is essential in whatever we do. Life is multi-faceted, and  we should be able to see more than one side of existence at any given time. It’s all about balance. Our Lord said, “This you ought to have done and not to have left the other undone” (Matthew 23:23).

This matter of my one-sided focus  reminds me of children who can’t seem to balance their affections. When they get a new friend, the old friend is sometimes left behind while they concentrate on the new friendship. Do some of us carry this tendency into adulthood where the new is always taking the place of the old?  New loves, new relationships, new loyalties. The old is slighted in deference to the new. I think we should  strive to balance life’s requirements so that we will not leave the important things undone.

In  elementary school I recited Edwin Percy Whipple’s well-known quotation: “Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time.”  I am grateful for my books and their potential for shining a light on the paths of others. I hope I can always do so with balance and grace.

Blessings,

Judith