Juggling

For as long as I remember whenever life has started to get a bit crazy I've had a secret fantasy or running away to join a circus - perhaps the result of reading too many Enid Blyton books as a child! And back when I was working my boss and I used to joke about doing that a lot - I guess the though of lion taming, walking the high wire or doing a trapeze act seemed a lot easier, saner and more fun than managing a crazy high pressured call centre! Truth be told though of all the circus acts I'm most fascinated by juggling.

I've been working on my juggling skills for years now and sadly I'm still not very good Juggling is a great way of grounding myself in the here and now, in the present moment - if my focus is somewhere else then it's unlikely that I'm going to successfully all/any of the balls in the air. Juggling is also a good relaxation for me. Sometimes in life I get overly focussed on one issue to the exclusion of all others and things get out of perspective. If in juggling I overly focus on one ball then I tend to drop the others the secret is to step back and focus on the whole picture - there's a lesson in that for life! I don't imagine the circus will be hiring me any time soon for my juggling skills but I think maybe my life is a little richer for time spent juggling.

I've got various sets of juggling balls but these are my favourites. I bought them at a tradecraft fair a few Christmases ago. They were mage by villagers somewhere in Guatemala and I love them for their colour but mostly for how they feel in the hand - they are beautiful to juggle with.



'Why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?'


Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants)