Balance

(copied from my 360.yahoo.com blog dated 11/12/07)

I am constantly s--t--r--i--v--i--n--g for balance in my life.


Single at home - HEAVY on adventure, light on intimate relationships
Single at work - HEAVY on ideals, light on maturity
Married at home - HEAVY on quality time, light on me time
Married at work - HEAVY on thought, light on inspiration
One child at home - HEAVY on concern and worry, light on sleep
One child at work - HEAVY on guilt, light on concentration
One child no work - HEAVY on domestic duties, light on adult conversation
Two children no work - HEAVY on insanity, light on quality time w/ hubby
Two children at work - What was I thinking?!?!

Last week was particularly difficult to balance. My husband was just getting over a major flu bug. I tried to take care of him, take care of my two children, go to work at a new job where I feel very unsure and operate a successfull household. It didn't work. I'm a woman. I should be good at multi-tasking (I am), but I often long for the opportunity to focus on one thing at a time. God gave me two precious years to do just that...focus on my two precious babies. But somehow, that didn't feel balanced either.

Whether my time is spent caregiving, working, cleaning or zoning out, I have yet to feel I am in a place of balance. Is it an unrealistic dream to walk outside on my perfect porch, drinking my perfect cup of tea, in the perfect early morning, with the perfect mist hanging in the perfect forest beyond my perfect property, I being in a perfect frame of mind - aware of my goals for the day with no sense of stress or worry, totally confident that everything will happen just as perfectly as my perfect morning with my perfect cup of tea? I swear I saw something like that on TV.

I want to know what God says about balance. My home group studied the book Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn, which talks about observing the Sabbath and how a day of rest is a piece of that puzzling balance. But I want to know more. Does anyone have any books or scripture that they know of that specifically talks about balance?