Story: A Balancing Act

It didn’t make sense to me, the way they just stood there, upright like sentries on guard or meerkats scanning the prairie. I nearly fell over the first one as I mindlessly ambled along the waters edge, foamy water licking my feet and sugary sand molding to each footstep. If I had been more attentive, I might have still overlooked the white pillars of coral balanced atop black masses of solidified lava rock, slick with ocean spray.

The simplicity and natural beauty of the sculptures seemed to make them one with their surroundings, easily overlooked yet deeply powerful. As I became aware of the unique statues poised stoically before me, I grabbed my camera from around my neck and took shot after shot of the balanced rocks. The Balancer, his mind far off in some astral world, contemplated on where to place the next piece of pearly white coral. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I was completely enthralled with his ability to construct such as perceived impossibility with such ease. The Balancer was tapped into the energy and properties of the stones and used that energy to find their centers, to understand how they were created.

The beach I was on, where I was so suddenly inspired, was Ho’okipa Beach Park on the north shore of Maui. Renown for its world class surfing and windsurfing, the small bay attracts water sport enthusiasts from around the world. It is also a great place to mingle with the locals and grill up a sunset BBQ.

A grassy hill to the left of the beach overlooks the windsurfer’s playground and provides an excellent vantage-point for photographers, filmmakers and observers alike. To the far right of the beach, a parking lot overlook gazes down upon dark-skinned surfers straddling their boards, just waiting for the perfect set.

The beach itself is about a quarter mile long and protected by an algae slick reef beyond which turtles pop their heads up from time to time. The long reef creates a shallow pool where kids splash and play and occasionally get bowled over by a rouge wave.

I stayed and watched the rock Balancer perform his zen-like mystery for a good hour. The ocean water swirled between the lava foundations, but didn’t dare upset the white coral pillars. It was meditation for both the observer and the artist. A meditation that reminds us that there are no impossibilities in life, no borders, no constraints, only personal limitations.

I later Googled “rock balancing” and the faithful search engine provided me with a whole world of information about an art I never knew existed. Wikipedia even has its own page for the meditative hobby. It says, rock balancing “is an art, discipline, and/or hobby depending on the intent of the practitioner. It can also be a performance art, a spectacle, or a devotion, depending upon the interpretation by its audience. Essentially, it involves placing some combination of rock or stone in arrangements which require patience and sensitivity to generate, and which appear to be physically impossible while actually being only highly improbable.”

Like most art, rock balancing is deeply grounding and inspiring. It allows you to perceive the world in more ways than you thought existed. It opens up new doors, new opportunities and a greater sense of freedom. But most of all, it empowers you to attempt to the improbable and perhaps even the ‘impossible”.

If you like what you saw here, google Andy Goldsworthy’s and check out some of his work