Learning to Lose Your Balance

There is a moment in gymnastics that I wish every parent could see.

It isn't the perfect routine.
It isn't the stuck landing.
It isn't the medal.

It's this.

The wobble.

And then the recovery.

Because somewhere between I almost fell and I'm still standing, a child learns something much bigger than gymnastics.

She learns that losing her balance doesn't mean it's over.

That she can adjust.
Recover.
Keep going.

And when she does fall—and she will—she learns to climb back up and try again.

I've written before about the gym being my place to run to. A place that has held me through some of the hardest chapters of my own life.

And maybe that's because long before I knew I would need the lesson, gymnastics had already taught it to me.

I spent a lot of years falling off the beam.

A lot.

But every time I did, I climbed back up.

I didn't know then that I was practicing for anything other than gymnastics. I didn't know there would be times in my life when I would lose my balance in ways that had nothing to do with four inches of suede beneath my feet.

But there were.

And I knew how to keep going.

So now, when I watch a child wobble, fight for it, find her balance and continue down the beam, I see more than gymnastics.

I see her practicing.

For the days when life wobbles.

For the times she falls.

For the moments when things don't go the way she thought they would.

She's learning that losing her balance doesn't mean she's lost.

Fall. Recover. Try again.

That's the lesson.

The four-inch beam is where we get to practice it. 💛🐝