A BALANCING ACT.

"What is too soon and what is soon enough?"

One of the ways I'm spending my holiday is watching Grey's Anatomy with Kingatha. It's a medical drama where every episode comes with a different set of patients, and somehow, each story is packed with so many things happening at once. That's what makes it so interesting to watch.

So, in today's episode, one case stood out to me.

A woman had been in an accident and needed multiple surgeries, so many that almost all the top surgeons in the hospital were in the OR, operating on her. However, it got to a point where they had to stop.

Her body had become too weak, and if they continued operating, she could die.

So they connected her to some machines and left her for a while. It was strange to watch because her body was still open. They hadn't even sewn her up yet, but they weren't operating either.

They had to wait a few hours before they could go back in. When they explained the situation to her parents, they called it a balancing act.

If they continued operating immediately, her body was too weak and she could die. But if they waited too long to operate, she could go into multiple organ failure and still die.

It was a case where operating too soon could kill her, and not operating soon enough could also kill her.

Watching that, one question kept playing in my mind: What is too soon, and what is soon enough How do you even quantify these things?

Because I realised the balancing act isn't just a surgical term. It explains so much of our realities. Like for instance, how do you know when to stop without giving up? When do you rest, and when does resting become procrastination?

When do you try again, and when is trying again simply refusing to accept that something is over?

The scariest part is that there isn't always a clock that tells us, "Now is the time." Sometimes, we have to pay attention to our capacity, our circumstances, the lessons we've learnt and, trust that God knows the timing better than we do.

What if "soon enough" isn't necessarily when we feel completely ready. What if, it is when we have rested enough to continue without destroying ourselves in the process.

And what if stopping for a while isn't giving up. It could just be the pause is what keeps you alive long enough to continue.

Dearest reader, there is a time to stop, there is a time to start again. And somewhere between the two is the delicate art of knowing when.

Perhaps that is the balancing act.

@favvy_Okwans🖤.