Well, let me enlighten you.
I'm an inspiration kind of person. I love reading through inspirational quotes, filling my own proverbial bucket and challenging myself to be a better (fill in the blank of the part of my life I'm working on that day). Those quotes give me warm fuzzies and give me a refreshed outlook on situations when I often need it most. But one day, I stumbled upon this great quote from Thomas Merton (and, yes, I had to look up who Thomas Merton was . . . turns out he was an author) that states: "Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony."
And I busted a gut.
I am a firm believer in that attitude is everything. You choose your own attitude, and you control your own happiness. And as a devoted yogi, I most definitely seek to find harmony (please note the use of the word "seek"). Yep, I'm a regular optimist.
But striking a balance? Order? Rhythm? Well, those are sometimes a little lacking in my world. Especially the balance part. More accurately, I should say, balance is something I have yet to figure out. I'm a wife, a mother, a friend, a reader, a new librarian, a techie, a reading teacher, a life-long learner and 30 bazillion other things/roles (30 bazillion is most definitely my favorite hyperbole). We all understand that there numerous demands on our time and attention. As I say in my header, I'm constantly attempting to find the balance in all things: between work and home, between print and digital literacy, between old and new . . . just to name of few.
If there's someone out there who has been able to strike that balance to perfection, please do share your secrets. I'll take copious notes.
The eternal optimist in me recognizes and celebrates the journey. If finding perfect balance were easy, life would be pretty boring. It's the journey, not the destination (to paraphrase Emerson . . . didn't have to look him up).
As a reminder of that sentiment, I wanted to choose a name that was representative of my attempt to find balance in my work and personal life, of my journey as a new librarian and my attempt to find a balance between the traditional role of a librarian and the new approach my school district has been visionary enough to support.
So my name is an homage to my new school (Titan Hill) for giving me the opportunity to create my dream library (that's the library part of my name) and to the pursuit of my own enlightenment and perhaps, one day, a perfect balance (Zen).
Wish me luck.
