Running and Returning: A Practice of Balance

What if every moment is a crossing?

We step out—running into the world of sensation, thought, and motion. Taste, touch, sound, sight, smell. The pulse of doing. The gravity of plans. The tug of identity. We run outward, carried by curiosity, desire, or simply momentum.

But each outward step invites a return.

Returning is more than going home. It is the motion of remembering the home before home—the quiet center behind your eyes, beneath your breath, before your name. It’s the spacious awareness that sees without grasping, that welcomes without holding.

The mind, cluttered by echoes of contact, can be gently cleared. Not by force, but by thinking of not thinking—a soft clearing, like wiping dew from glass. This is the practice: a reboot, a reset, a remembering.

Some thoughts are close to home—they arrive like warm light through the window, familiar and grounding. Others are far from home—filled with distortion, urgency, or past identity. And then there are the thoughts of no thoughts—where awareness floats free, undressed, simple, clear.

To practice running and returning is to learn the art of balance.

Like a tightrope walker with a long horizontal pole, you use this rhythm—this return—as your stabilizer. The more you master the return, the steadier your step, even while the rope sways and the wind picks up. The senses will tug. The world will call. But you carry your pole.

The breath is your reminder.
The pause is your power.
The return is your anchor.

And gradually, each moment becomes both step and stillness, both motion and homecoming. Balance is no longer effort—it is intimacy with the edge, and with what lies behind it.

A Thought:

Breathe in quiet air
A leaf floats on still water
Now is all there is

A Practice : Return and Returning

Morning (5 min)
Sit quietly. Feel the breath.
On each exhale, say inwardly:
“I return.”
Let the breath be your anchor.
If thoughts arise, gently notice—
and return.

Throughout the Day (3x or more)
Set a reminder. When it chimes:

• Pause.
• Feel your feet.
• Take one conscious breath.
• Whisper silently: “Here. Now.”

This is a micro-return—
a way to reset the moment.

Evening (5 min)
Sit or lie down.
Gently rewind your day.
Notice any lingering tension or loops.
For each, say: “Release. Return.”
Let them fall away
like pebbles from your pocket.