“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.” -  Thomas Merton

Lately I have found myself revisiting the concept of correction – or balance - quite a bit.  This contemplation about these concepts began about the same time with two different stimuli.   The first time was in the fall of 2008 when the whole economic crises began to emerge and the big “R”, that being the real, admitted, spoken aloud recession, grand financial losses and the all too familiar mess was splattered all over the internet, our newspapers, and talk shows.  Pundits pondered and some attributed this economic slide to excesses by lenders, brokers, Wall Street aficionados, corporate fat cats, and regular every day folk.

Somewhere around this time, I became more aware of the voice from my GPS that announced roads and directions upon which to drive or turn.  On occasion, through no fault of mine, this gadget would catch itself having made an error and its female robotic voice would positively declare, “Recalculating!”  Then for a moment or two this machine would refigure its coordinates, and then would confidently send me off on the corrected route to my destination.

I kept hearing the word and sound, “Recalculating” and thought that yes, this is what our society and our world was doing.  Were we headed to the same fate as the fall of the Roman Empire?  Were we greedy? Were we abandoning proven rules of financial stability?  Were we gorging on our credit card yummies and falling prey to the traps of excessive materialism?  Were we spend-crazy?  

I concluded that to some extent we were. And so, as painful as this experience is - I think we would have driven off the deep end had this not happened.  Recalculating, correcting is a natural state of things.  Are there some laws of physics about nature returning to balance?  If not, there should be.

This is true with finances – we need to be more reasonable about the balance between what we want, what we save, and what we spend.  We will be better off returning to some monetary basics and we will all collectively have our mental fingers crossed for this to occur sooner rather than later.  

Now, when my GPS recalculates, it is a good thing.  Otherwise, I would drive off mindlessly to someplace other than I intended, waste time and likely miss the event to which I was going.

This is also true for us.  We, as humans, go through this same process of correction.  Unfortunately, often pain is our warning system.  However we are fortunate that we are given a signal before it becomes too late to restore balance.  This pain creates awareness which is necessary in order to solve any dilemma. If we heed the knowledge furnished by this awareness, we have the opportunity to make a decision.

Do we save more?  Do we find ways to be thriftier?  Do we discover through this process that we can be more content with less and find ways to enjoy again more simple pleasures in life?  This is the process of recalculating, figuring out the right path.  

Once we gather this information, we have the wonderful opportunity to make better decisions.  When we do anything in excess, such as, eat, drink, sleep, spend, watch TV, play video games, text on our phones,  or work too much,  a correction is in order.  Now, when I have made the wrong choice, turned down the wrong road, I hear this voice telling me to “Recalculate.”

At that point, at that crucial point I have to make a decision.  Hopefully, it is the right one which leads once again to that comforting, yet elusive balance.  I like this pattern: correction, awareness, decision, and balance.  I take heed and feel grateful for it.