“Balanced” is a true buzz term in the mothering community; an extension of the idea of “having it all”. In my own lived experience it has been a term I have  disliked and turned away from, always resenting it’s blasé tone and misrepresentative ideology. To counter it, I’ve created “The Myth of Complete Balance” which displays a woman kneeling, looking upward and  focused solely on a golden idol of a baby which is balanced precariously on her forehead. Her body is  strewn with a star-scape, with a higher concentration of  dotted stars on her forehead near the baby, and  lessening on the way down to her toes.  

If balance is the thing we aim to achieve, then we will  always be left wanting. While balance does happen, I find it to be fleeting and temporary at best, leaving a sense of failure and disillusionment as I break my own neck trying to place the pieces of my life back together in a way that won’t fall off the scales. It’s the work between the balance; the picking up and putting down that leads to what I have found rewarding and  sustainable. Just as in this work, complete balance is  for mythical beings, not human ones.

Read more about Mya Cluff.