Scintillations

I don't know much about balance. I know how to run myself ragged until my body gets sick to tell me to slow down. I know how to eat whatever I want and feel guilty about it later. I stopped balancing my checkbook when the risk of bouncing a check diminished. In my quest for balance I discovered that I live in a world of black or white and it's only in the last couple weeks that I discovered gray. (Thanks Becky!) Balance lives in the gray; it lives in the middle of the scale where we reach equilibrium. It doesn't live in the black side or the white side - it lives in the grays - and better yet - it lives in the prism of colors that exist between the absence of light and all colors within the light.

I'm realizing balance is an enlightening concept that litters our daily conversations but is difficult to apply practically. And I'm not sure I really want balance. Except maybe in yoga.

I don't feel alone though. Everyone of this issue's contributors struggled to write about balance.

Yet somehow we found tidbits of balance in our unbalanced lives. Becky wrote about balancing the (perceived) need for safety against desire to take risks in It Will All Make Sense Later. Juliette wrote about finding balance on a challenging hiking trail in her engaging story Equipoise. I managed to write about the balance between being well and surrendering to feeling sick in Hurrying To Rest. In Balance Morsels Becky and Kristin share the small doses of balance they've applied to their lives. And if you want to read about my challenges with balanced eating, Cookies And The Art of Imbalanced Eating is the piece for you.

What else can I tell you about our second issue? We have our first success journey - a talented woman named Karen allowed me to interview her about her quest in becoming an artist in The Journey of an Artist. Enlightened Juliette interprets a dreamer's scary dream sequence in Real Dream Interpretation. If you don't mind, I'll save the rest of the articles for a surprise...

We are grateful to you for reading our little pride and joy, and for passing it on to friends. We want your feedback on how we're doing so far, please send comments to "submissions at berealmag dot com".

with love,

Julie Russell Beebe
Creator, Be Real Magazine