The Balance Between

Brooke Raines
3 min readOct 21, 2020

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Photo by Brooke Raines

I no longer think choosing adventure is about “jumping” into the unknown.
It’s about finding the innate understanding we’ve forgotten as we’ve grown.
For some this takes us to faraway lands
And for others we find it traversing the veins of our hands.
I’ve slowly come to understand that it’s not about taking that one “big leap.”
In reality it’s often dipping a single toe into the water to see if it’s deep.
And those small acts of courage that start with a toe,
Are what coax us onward as our confidence built through experience begins to grow.
It takes courage to confront people, places and moments we haven’t yet seen,
But when alchemized with reflection and hindsight, there is a great catharsis in the unknown, which I’ve come to call “the balance between.”

It’s the membrane that separates inside from out.
It’s the thin line we walk attempting to discover what “being human” is really about.
It’s where duality becomes union and where union divides.
It’s where we begin to realize that we’re often not that different inside.
Confronting the unknown, however we choose,
Is a critical choice that drastically alters our life view.
When we make friends with the unknown we disempower ignorance,
Which if not confronted is humanity’s most volatile hindrance.
So let’s return to the leap or the toe,
Because this contrast can illustrate what we seem to have forgotten long ago.

When I set off into the wild unknown
I searched for answers that contrasted as harshly as “the leap” or “the toe.”
I was searching for wrong and also for right.
I kept placing my head and my heart in fight after fight.
I drew x’s on maps and I planned a big leap.
Convinced that I couldn’t find the unknown in the same home where I sleep,
Or my neighbors just down the street.

It had to be out there and indeed some parts were.
Yet as direct experience accumulated over time,
Known and unknown began to blur.
It became evident that it’s less about what’s out there and what’s in here,
But rather a perspective shift, an opening,
A decision to let the nuance of life honestly appear.
Otherwise the search becomes rooted in dualities so dangerously severe
That we close our minds to the unknown in each moment,
Staring us in the face right now and right here.

Through conversations with strangers, the mountains and myself,
I began to wonder where, why and how we draw lines that divide ourselves.
It’s not about blindly saying I am you and you are me
Without regard for the lived experience of each.
But honoring and listening to what others have to teach
About how we co-create this reality.
Each individual action we take forms the world in which we live now
And if we wish to change it, radical listening is the first step on a path that answers “how.”

So here lies a critical gift for those who welcome the unknown,
An honest understanding of life,
Which can help us build a better and more just home.
The world doesn’t have to be blinded by ignorance and hate
And finding the balance between is the key that unlocks this gate.
So back again to the leap or the toe,
To remind us that it doesn’t matter how we start, inside or out, but that we listen to the call whispering “go.”

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Brooke Raines

A gypsy soul and a lover at heart following both was only the start….