Elbert Einstein said: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” If you’ve ever ridden a bike, you know how true this is. If you go really slow, you’re going to lose your balance and topple. We need a certain amount of momentum to keep the bike balanced and moving forward. Thus, in life, we also need that certain amount of momentum to keep us from stagnating or falling. When we stop moving physically, our muscles atrophy (waste away). When we stop learning or using our brains, they slow down. For instance, many studies have shown that doing crossword puzzles can hold off dementia (memory decline). That old saying, “use it, or lose it!” is true in almost everything. If you’re a singer and you take a long break from singing, you’ll find it hard to sing as well, as long, and as pure as you do when you sing on a regular basis. The same is true of drawing. You may retain the skills, the knowledge, but the more you practice anything, the better the brain is at accomplishing what you’re trying to do. We need to keep moving, in whatever capacity we can. If you want your creative juices to flow for a project, keep them flowing when you’re between projects. Scribble notes down, doodle little drawings on your note pads, sing in the shower, do a crossword or two every day, keep up on the latest information you need to do your job, your hobby, your parenting, your life, and then utilize it - keep moving! It’s the cycle – do in order to do! It’s how we’re made.
And connect with people. We feed each other in so many ways – for good and bad sometimes. Because most of us deal with self-confidence issues, I think one of the hardest lessons we learn is to take correction or even suggestions from others. Whether it is kindly or carefully given, or rudely or callously given, or whether it is constructive criticism (valid opinions, often with positive and negative points, but given in a friendly manner) it is hard to admit we aren’t the super-human, "totally put-together" person we like to imagine we are. It is hard to admit we are flawed and may need to adjust our attitudes a bit (what?! we could be wrong!?). I’ve learned that we are ALL flawed, ALL dysfunctional in one way or another, ALL human, and therefore, ALL going to screw up, say or do something ignorant, or unkind, or judgmental, or… We are human. Flawed – by being human and having to deal with our emotions vs. our logic, our nurture vs. nature, people’s opinions vs. our own path, etc., etc., etc. Humans are complicated! I think the trick is to learn to take the bad with the good and separate the two in our minds and hearts. Retain and utilize the good parts of advice, criticism, words of any sort to our benefit and therefore others’ benefit, and let go of the bad words, vibes, meanings. Otherwise, we’ll walk around in anger and anger can destroy us, make us critical, uncaring, bitter, hold up our growth, stop us from being the person we were meant to be – steal our joy.
There’s more to the bicycle lesson if we want to go deeper. For instance, if we stop in fear, laziness, or indecision, we aren’t going anywhere. That’s okay for a wee rest or time to decide our next direction, but we don’t want to stay idle for too long or we may end up stuck, not wanting to do anything or afraid to move forward. On the opposite end, if we go too fast, we could wipeout and need some serious repair before we can get back on the bike. It’s generally easier to do things the right way first than to have to go back and redo them. Slow down enough to do it right, but keep moving forward! And keep the handlebars turned in the right direction, or you may go off a cliff! We could go deeper still – look before you turn, don’t brake too fast, and so forth…but I think we’ve delved through enough bicycle points. There are lessons surrounding us everywhere, if we look for them and are open to accept them.
We absolutely should have fun on this journey of life – take some fun paths, squeeze in a few wild rides (carefully!), and even to slow down a bit or stop once in a while for a break from our human “rat race”, but if we take our lives seriously and want to make the best of our time on Earth, then we ought to consider Einstein’s words. Keep moving to maintain our balance, keep ourselves in top form physically and mentally (the best that we can in the body we’ve been given) in order to keep moving and to make an impact in whatever capacity we are able.
This past year of covid-19 has taught many of us the true gift of people. Let's put our focus on encouraging each other, covering over others' blunders as much as possible, and letting go of our own blunders more quickly, so we can live in harmony and enjoy this earthly life - together.
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