Life Balance, Pond Balance

It's All About Balance!

4/3/2018

Paul and I just started taking dance lessons a few months ago. We started out as complete bungling idiots, self-conscious and absolutely off-beat. We're now at least stepping to the rhythm and not on each other.

How we think we look

How our son sees us

Pretty much what we really look like

Last week, our instructor sat us down to chat about what exactly we're getting out of it, and what we hope to get out of it. She was, of course, setting us up for buying the next round of lessons. However, this discussion ended up being quite enlightening -- and produced some unexpected results.

There were the usual benefits. We're spending time together away from the business. We're learning something we can use at all kinds of social events. We're getting exercise. It's good for our mental health. It improves memory. It reduces stress. You know, all the logical benefits that you hear about from health professionals and dance instructors.

Then there were a couple of surprises that came out of our mouths, totally unbidden. We were spending time focusing on each other and on the task at hand, and not on discussing or thinking about our business (sorry, clients). In addition, I was enjoying having Paul lead for a change, and getting to spend 40 minutes not having to make any decisions. Paul was enjoying me just following him, and not trying to tell him what to do next (apparently, I can be a bit of a slave-driver and am an anti-procrastinator). But our roles were reversed there in the dance studio for just a little while. It's called balance! Who knew?

As we sat by our back yard pond later that evening with a cold drink (shameless plug) talking about the discussion we'd had with our dance coach, it dawned on us that our ponds and water features provide balance for our clients. Especially people who work in tech jobs, office cubicles, and any other high-pressure or stressful scenario. The ponds and water features are nature-based and low-tech. AND if people have a maintenance contract with us, they are completely no-worry and no maintenance. Folks just get to come home and decompress at the end of their work day and/or the weekends. Gee, we're kinda proud of that. :-)

So, what are you doing to provide balance in your life?