The autumn equinox offers a gentle reminder that balance is not permanent. Reflect on changing seasons, gratitude, and finding your way back.
Finding Balance at the Autumn Equinox
There is something about the autumnal equinox that feels like an invitation to pause.
Astronomically, it marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, a point in the earth’s journey when day and night are nearly equal in length.
Nearly equal.
Balanced.
And then, almost imperceptibly, things begin to shift.
The days grow shorter. Darkness arrives a little earlier. The season changes.
I find that comforting.
Because I have spent a fair amount of my life trying to find balance, only to discover that weeks or months later I am somehow all out of balance again.
Maybe you can relate.
I get things settled. I find a rhythm that works. I feel like I have finally figured things out.
And then life changes.
My needs change.
The season changes.
And suddenly the balance I thought I had achieved needs to be found again.
Perhaps that is because balance was never meant to be a permanent destination.
Balance Doesn’t Mean Everything Is Equal
I think we sometimes imagine balance as a perfectly divided scale.
Fifty percent here. Fifty percent there.
Equal time. Equal attention. Equal effort.
But life rarely works that way.
Sometimes work needs more of us.
Sometimes family needs more.
Sometimes our health needs more.
Sometimes rest needs more.
And sometimes simply getting through a difficult season requires nearly everything we have.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we are living an unbalanced life.
It may simply mean we are responding appropriately to the season we are in. The earth itself reminds us of this.
The equinox offers us a moment of near-equality, but it doesn’t stay there. The season continues to turn.
Seasons change. Needs change. We change.
Perhaps balance isn’t about keeping everything equal.
Perhaps it is about noticing what needs our attention now.
That connects with something I have been thinking about throughout this season of stewardship: we have to pay attention to what we have been given before we can steward it well.
- Our time.
- Our energy.
- Our relationships.
- Our homes.
- Our responsibilities.
We cannot give everything our full attention all the time.
So we have to discern what matters in the season we are actually living.
A Moment to Notice
The equinox also gives us a natural opportunity to stop looking ahead for just a moment.
Before we make another list of what needs to be done, perhaps we can notice what has already been done. Before we decide what needs to change, perhaps we can acknowledge what is working. Before we begin planning the next season, perhaps we can give thanks for the one we are leaving.
What has grown?
What has sustained you?
What ordinary thing has made life a little sweeter?
Who has been a gift?
What are you grateful for that you might have overlooked because you were busy trying to keep everything moving?
I think gratitude has a way of bringing us back into balance.
Not because gratitude makes everything perfect. It doesn’t.
But it changes what we notice.
And sometimes what we notice changes how we experience the life we are already living.
Finding Our Way Back
I am beginning to think that perhaps the goal isn’t to achieve some permanent state of perfect balance.
Maybe the goal is to notice when we have drifted.
To recognize when our attention has become scattered, when our responsibilities have grown too heavy, when rest has disappeared, or when we have been giving too much of ourselves in one direction.
And then, gently, to adjust.
Not dramatically, or all at once.
Just enough to begin finding our way back.
The equinox doesn’t ask the earth to stay balanced forever.
It simply marks a moment in the turning.
And perhaps we can allow it to mark one for us, too.
- A moment to pause.
- A moment to notice.
- A moment to give thanks.
- A moment to ask what this season is asking of us—and what deserves our attention as we move into the next one.
Life will continually change. We will continually change. Balance will continually need our attention.
We don’t have to get it right once and for all.
We simply have to be willing to return.
And perhaps, for today, that is enough.