When I began this journey of exploring the world around me through my senses, I thought I only had five. I was not only surprised but intrigued when I discovered we have eight. The sense of balance commands direction—up, down, left, right—and position in space and more.
We start off our lives crawling, then toddling around furniture, holding on to keep our balance. If you think about it, it’s miraculous how we balance on two legs, let alone walk, run, skip, dance, and the many other amazing things we do on two legs. But wait…there are people with no legs who are able to do exceptionally amazing things requiring balance with their arms.
As a child, I remember playing hide-and-seek in the barn loft filled with well over a 1,000 bales of hay. We squirreled down into holes between bales to hide. Shimmied down through openings cut in the loft floor to the stalls below to escape from being discovered. Running across the top of the bales, chasing one another. All of this we were able to do because our bodies were young and we had an innate sense of balance. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were in tune with our bodies because we exercised them outside every day—running, jumping, exploring our world because that’s what we did when I was young.
We take this amazing sense for granted as we get older, and our sense of balance regresses. This may be from inner ear issues or from lack of care for this amazing body we have. We are a miraculous creation. These bodies we have need care—I’m the first to tell you I’m not taking the care of my body that I should. This is my wake-up call to better appreciate and strengthen my body so I can continue to enjoy it.
This body we have is a magnificent creation, a work of art, capable of so many amazing things. (Psalm 139:13-16) Explore your sense of balance. Engage it, strengthen it, stretch it. You will amaze yourself.
April 4, 2025
