Up, Down, or In Between?

By Monica Zollinger

Life is full of ups and downs. It’s the natural order of things. At my Grandma’s cabin there was a log teeter-totter that could fit at least ten kids on either side with plenty of room left over for more. We’d always try to get the right amount of weight on both sides to make the teeter-totter balance. As we went up or down, it seemed there were some bumps along the way, but it was always fun.

Years later, after working most my life, for the first time, I found myself with no job lined up. Even though I did not want to, after a few weeks of rejection letters and a personal contact from BJ, I became the Office Manager for Heritage Water Company. Why do I tell this story? It’s background to set the stage for the Law of Rhythm working in my life.

“Law of Rhythm. What’s that?” you ask. It is FEELING the ups and downs in life as we strive to progress. Not having a job for the first time in my life was a low point for me. I didn’t want to work for BJ. I wanted experience somewhere else with other people. The universe seemed to be pushing me to work for her and I was fighting it. When I finally let go, I met new people and had experiences that changed my life.

The Law of Rhythm states that everything vibrates and moves to certain rhythms. These rhythms establish our seasons, cycles, stages of development, and patterns. There is a time and a season for all things in the universe.

“Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates [counterbalances].” – The Kybalion

The Law of Rhythm is the pattern in our life’s ups and downs. It’s the reason for being able to look forward to better times. Something inside us longs for the natural rhythms of life. It’s what makes us feel. We need change to feel alive. Everything that happens in our life—whether we think it’s good or bad—is for structure and balance. The key to success in mastering this law is in the balance.

Sometimes we feel joy and sometimes we feel pain. Remember the teeter-totter? Rise and fall. Up and down. Like the pendulum swinging back and forth. Always changing direction. There must be a balance. The balance is change. We need to deal with the changes responsibly. How we respond to these changes (rhythms) is what makes the difference. The choice is ours.

My brother would always jump off the teeter-totter, leaving the kids on his end to shoot upward and both ends getting a startled bump. When things go bad in life, we can choose to 1) Fight and struggle and cling to life as it’s always been, or we can 2) Let it go, realizing that there must be a reason for this challenge and that things will be good again. It is not easy to fight the ocean currents…we could just relax and ride the waves. Or stay on the teeter-totter whether we are on the up or down side of life.

Working at Heritage Water Company, I met people that changed my life. One of those people introduced me to the person who became my husband. The next part of the story is a great example of the law of rhythm manifesting itself in my life.

I was engaged and had just started training someone to take my place. I was working 14-16-hour days. One morning as the sun was just starting to come up, I went outside to go to work. As I was unlocking my car, someone ran up behind me, handcuffed me and said they were going to kidnap me for the day. It was Mark, my fiancé. I said, “Just let me call in and let them know I won’t be in then.” He assured me he had already called and taken care of it. So, we spent the day together.

The next morning when I arrived at work, BJ was sitting in my desk and proceeded to give me a two-hour lecture about responsibility and commitment. She then started in on how Mark was not good enough for me. I interrupted her and asked what the point of this discussion was. She then told me that if I needed to take some time and figure out my priorities, I could take the day off. I said I’d let her know if I was coming in again and left. I spent the day pondering, praying, thinking, and then took off to go talk to Mark. The next day about 4:30 pm, I stopped in at the office and told her I was done and would like my last paycheck. I then went home, packed, cleaned my apartment and the next day, left to stay with some family friends while looking for a place to live with Mark after we were married.

As I look back on that experience, I was upset at BJ because of the way she treated me. However, I am grateful to her for the push that started me on the next season of my life. I was able to spend more time with Mark and get to know him better during the last two months of our courtship.

Change is needed for our physical, spiritual, and emotional growth. So, whether we are on the ground pushing upward or in the air on our way down, let us remember that there is a rhythm in our life that helps keep us in balance.

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