A man on stilts. A tank filled with just enough water. A schedule mixed with work and pleasure. In order to embrace the optimum life, one must acquire the knowledge and awareness of balance. Balance is the sustainment of equilibrium and stability. It is the ability to contain composure and poise while juggling the obstacles thrown your way.

With every positive in life, a negative shall accompany it. On the opposing hand, with every negative, there will be an upslope hill as well. Every peak must eventually have a trough. A wave will inevitably crash. A rollercoaster must go up in order to go down. An arrow must pull back to see the potential to move forward and soar.

There is no such thing as perfection, only close to it. Even if something seems like it is the ultimate end goal or being, there will always be a gap. As humans, we seek and crave satisfaction. It comes to the point that even when one reaches the original finish line, they decide they cannot help themselves but to attempt to sprint an extra lap. By halting at the initial line, it is not settling for less, but instead, it is allowing yourself to feel content with how far you made it already. When one moves past this line, it is showing the grit to persevere and surpass their expectations.

Every dealt of cards will contain jokers and face cards. The jokers are the yin, encompassing the characteristics of negativity by being looked down upon. The face cards are the yang since they are placed in the limelight as positive and powerful. Even if the jokers seem like they aren’t needed in the deck, they are necessary. Without the jokers, the game could not continue. In life, the obstacles that bleed darkness contrast the light. It is within the darkness that light will eventually shine through. Every storm has a beginning and an end.

Balance is accepting that perfection is not the answer. Instead, it is a containment of the ability to be proud of what you can do, instead of what you can’t. Yin yang shows that one must experience the bad with the good, vice versa. The negatives one faces compliments the positives by making them shine a bit brighter.

As day becomes night, a cycle is made of a system of completion, in which a conundrum of possibilities sparks a flame of wholeness. It is all about the perspective one looks at their hand that will determine the path in which they crave to follow, whether it be negative or positive is in the eye of the beholder.