I'm reading the Center's lease with the City of Syracuse. Riveting stuff, right? I need to compare it with the new lease we're receiving this week and identify any differences. The weird thing is I kind of enjoy reading it. I want to know everything about the place and this is an opportunity to study and learn.

This three-day-weekend I've been considering balance in my life. It's not a scale with two pans. It's more like an Alexander Calder's hanging mobile, the rods and colored plates balanced from a single point in the ceiling. The plates include learning the job; being a father, husband, son, brother, and friend; writing; reading; being physically, mentally, and emotionally well; and whatever I'm not balancing at the moment.

I've come to my basement nook to do some work prior to returning to the Center tomorrow but after only two pages I realized my back had stiffened and my right arm hurt. Weird. I've been fine all day. What's up?

One project I finished today was Barry Magid's Ending The Pursuit Of Happiness. Magid is a Zen teacher and psychoanalyist and his book encouraged me to be open to the present, to name my thoughts, and, though he didn't mention this, to inventory how my body feels in the moment.

And that's almost the end of that practice for me right now. There may be something important to glean from it, but tonight it's just this: "hey, maybe loosen up while you read the lease, Bri."

Ah, enlightenment.

Having finished Magid, I'm back to reading Jim Collins' [Good To Great](https://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html. My guess is that leading an organization to greatness or maintaining greatness and building on it, will require attention to data. I can learn to be better at that.

Tonight, I gathered this data: I'm making myself sore reading the lease. I don't know yet what to do with that other than take deep breaths, stretch, and walk while I read. The data suggests that something is out of balance. I haven't identified what, but the Calder mobile hangs down on one side, the other side pushed against the ceiling. I'm unsure what correction to make.

But I have two data points and I'll collect more. If a pattern makes itself clear, I'll have something on which to act. For now, I'm gathering data and considering moving, adding, or removing a piece of the mobile.

Right now though, I'm going to finish reading the lease while walking in the yard. I'll stretch my back and arms, shake out my shoulders, and be sure to breathe deep. It won't do to become crippled right now. The lease goes for five more years and I expect to be there every day of that.