Article August 11, 2014 Issue

What I learned about true balance

Lynne Darner

I confidently stepped onto the highest balance beam, four or five feet above the forest floor. My husband and I were early that morning for our class in the ropes course that was rigged 40 feet up into the trees. I was passing time by walking on a series of rustic balance beams, each one higher than the last.

This happened years ago when my now-grown daughters and their cousins were staying at a Christian Science camp for the first time. We all had piled into our van and trekked one thousand miles to the camp, which was in the mountains of Colorado.

“Wow—look how high I am! Whoa—look how high I am!” And with that last thought I wobbled and then tumbled off the balance beam.