Mommy explains balance

“Mommy?”

“Yes, my angel?”

“’Mommy, at school today the teacher said that the world is a mess because people aren’t balanced.”

“Oh, did she?”

“Yes, and Mommy?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t understand what she was talking about. She supposed to be the teacher, but I think she is confused!”

“Really? Hmmm, a confused teacher. That’s not good. Why do you think she’s confused?”

“Because my friend Lily goes to gymnastics and she gets up on a high thing and then she says she balances on it, and I don’t think that the world is a mess because we can’t all stand on a high thing.”

“Very good point my precious heart. You may be on to something. Was that the only thing you thought of?”

“No, Mommy. Maggie’s dad is sometimes there when her mom looks after me and he talks about how his books won’t balance and I thought that meant they couldn’t go on the high thingy, but then Maggie told me it was about money. Her dad looked so cross and I thought that those books must be nasty if money can’t balance in them. But you told me that money isn’t important and we must remember that loving each other is more important, but I think Maggie’s dad thinks that the money is more important than love, because I know how much Maggie loves him, so he shouldn’t be so cross.”

“I think you are right angel. It doesn’t sound good.”

“No, yes, no, oh Mommy, I’m confused now! Are people not balanced because of the high thing or the money?”

“Maybe both my love, but I don’t think your teacher was talking about money or the high thing.”

“Oh… then what was she talking about Mommy? Please tell me or I’ll go nuts.”

“Ok, I’ll try help you not to go nuts. Let me see. Ok, with the high thingy, it’s Lily and the bar, 2 things right?”

“Yes.”

“With Maggie’s dad it was the money and the book right? Two things?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, so when you have two things, they must work together so that neither one falls over. Without her balance Lily would fall over. If Maggie’s dad puts too little money into the book, and needs to take out more, then there won’t be enough and he will fall too.”

“Oh, so balance is two things helping each other not to fall off. But why does the teacher think that everyone is falling off?”

“She thinks that people are not looking after themselves and that means they are going to fall over and if everyone falls over then no-one can help anyone.”

“Oh dear Mommy, people can’t all fall over. We have to pick them up Mommy, how can we help pick them up?”

“We can’t really, my angel. We can only make sure we look after ourselves and we don’t fall over, and help others if we can, but mostly they have to help themselves get balanced again.”

“I don’t want to fall over Mommy, how do I stay balanced?”

“Well... That’s where it gets a little more difficult.”

“I don’t mind Mommy, I did a difficult maths question today and the teacher said I was clever, so I think I can do this balance thing too.”

“Ok my girl. Are you ready?”

“Yes, Mommy, hit me :-)”

“You know Mommy’s mobile phone?”

“Yes, but what’s that got to do with this balance thing? Must I phone someone?”

“No, my love. I want to use it as an example. You see the phone has a body that you hold, right?”

“Yes…”

“And it has a memory to store the numbers I put in there, right?

“Yes…”

“And I have to get signal from a big tower so I can use the phone, yes?”

“Yes… but Mommmy, I don’t understand…”

“Hang on madam. We have the body of the phone, the mind of the phone and the signal of the phone all working together. So could the phone work if it was missing a part?”

“No Mommy, it would be broken, like when Daddy’s phone fell into the toilet and it couldn’t work anymore because the body and memory of the phone were broken.”

“YES! The phone fell and broke. There was no more balance. You and I are like that phone, we have a body that we have to look after, a mind we have to look after, and a spirit we have to look after.”

“And we can’t fall into the toilet!”

“Yes, that’s quite right, we can’t :-).  So what your teacher meant is that we have to look after our bodies by feeding them good things and exercising. If you do bad things to your body or you feed it with bad things, then it will fall. You have to put good things like maths and exciting stories into your brain. If you put nasty things into your brain, then you will fall. And at night when we pray, that is when we are looking after our signal to God to make sure that we don’t fall over. When we look after all three parts of ourselves then we have balance. What your teacher meant is that some people only look after one thing and when that happens it is not good, and people fall.”

“Like Jamie’s dad. He is so fat that he couldn’t make it up the stairs at school to see Jamie’s classroom, Jamie was so sad, and his dad nearly fell down the little stairs out the school.”

“Yes, sweetheart, if you don’t eat properly and exercise and do what the doctor tells you, then you won’t be able to climb stairs either.”

“No Mommy, I always want to run up stairs and climb trees, it’s so much fun! And I’m going to read good things, not just the books that Maggie’s dad reads that make him so cross. And I’m always going to say my prayers and talk to God, because that makes me feel so quiet inside so that I sleep so well and it makes me want to smile. I like smiling Mommy. I like this balance. Thank-you Mommy. I think my teacher is very clever now too!”

“Pleasure my angel. I like smiling and being balanced too, and I’m very glad you don’t have a confused teacher!”