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“I’m juggling a lot of things right now.”
– Everybody, Ever
One night when I was young, I taught myself how to juggle.
I stood over my bed, and tossed an apple, a tennis ball and a hackysack, over and over – dropping things constantly until I discovered a pattern of movement that allowed me to keep everything in motion.
I learned that each thing has its own weight. When I dropped something, I learned how each thing was balanced. I also learned that my hands could only hold one thing at a time and that I had to let go of something to catch something else. A juggler may have a constellation of things up in the air, but their hands are only holding one thing at a time.
Most importantly, I found that the spirit of juggling is playful, like dancing. An enjoyable rhythm of holding on and letting go.
It is a well worn figure of speech to say “I’m juggling a lot of things right now.” Bouncing between jobs, relationships, duties and hobbies can be a dizzying performance not unlike keeping a drawer full of steak knives from hitting the ground.
However, more often than not, the spirit of juggling is missing entirely from this metaphor as it is applied to our daily routines.
In the first place, the act is rarely playful and is often done with a sense of heroic duty. Constantly doing things in thankless service to others can lead us to a strange kind of “martyr’s pride,” but it inevitably leads to fatigue and feelings of under-appreciation when our service becomes expected.
Furthermore, although learning to juggle requires ball dropping – (every missed throw or catch is an act of learning), in our daily juggling act we demand ruthless perfection and are unforgiving of mistakes in our performance. Our self-image forbids failure, so we’ve developed an immense fear of faltering and an absolute dread of “dropping the ball.”
Combine this with a culture who can’t say “NO” – taking on more items to juggle with each passing day like a snowball rolling down hill – and you get a world of would-be-jugglers clinging desperately to armloads of balls… too afraid of dropping something to ever toss anything into the air.
We often think we’re juggling life’s responsibilities when we are actually carrying more things than we can count, contorting into bizarre positions for fear of something touching the ground.
The Art of Juggling
The essence of juggling is play.
If you’re not playing,
You’re not juggling.
You have to learn how to juggle.
You can’t learn unless you drop the ball.
Every dropped ball teaches you how to balance it.
Your hand can only hold one thing at a time,
So start with fewer things.
Which are most important?
Say “no” if someone hands you a flaming dagger.
To catch something you have to let go of something:
When you are working,
You can’t hold on to duty or what you’d rather do.
Toss those things up. Let them go.
When you are having fun,
You can’t hold on to responsibilities in other places.
Toss them up. Let them go.
When you are with the people you love,
Let all other things be in the air.
When you toss a ball in the air,
Don’t worry.
Gravity brings everything back again.
Catch…
Hold…
Release…
Catch…
Hold…
~r.stover