Life can be so stressful, sometimes.  Events inside and outside of ourselves can 
shake up an orderly world and make it hard to get through each day.  When that happens, we can rant and rave, and demand a more peaceful existence or a respite from turmoil.
And often, as I write below, our prayers are answered... Just not in the way we thought they would be.  For true respite is often the opposite of what we desire.

We might ask, "Why can't we have a normal life?"  
"Why can't we have balance and harmony?" But what is "normal?"  
And how do we achieve balance and harmony?

To be in a state of balance and harmony is to have achieved equipoise.  Yet to have achieved equipoise means that there must at some stage have been a "balancing act."

Equipoise does not happen naturally.  It is not the "normal" state of things.
The "normal" state of things is chaos and inequity.  That's why life so often seems so unfair, so unbalanced, because it is the easier path to take. 
It is the "normal" or habitual tendency of life on earth 
or in the universe, for that matter.

Think about it.
To hold molecules together in a state of physical existence can only be done by creating a tension or attraction between them.  That requires great effort.  And effort is not the natural state of things.  Effort moves us beyond simple "existence."

So, by doing a "balancing act" and achieving equipoise, in order to create a special life for ourselves and others, we find ourselves "living on the edge."  This is necessary to maintain equipoise and to keep the molecules of what we have built in our lives together.

When you live in the centre of a seesaw and want to keep it level, you have to keep up the "balancing act" that maintains the level.  Any momentary lapse of concentration can
see the seesaw tilt and the balance become inequitable again.  So, those who seek a balanced path in life, or a harmonious existence, must necessarily face stress due to the strong demands placed on their energies and resources 
as they struggle to maintain that existence.

Only when we let go and allow inequity and imbalance to exist, when we allow chaos to resume its "natural order," can we rest a moment and take relief from this stress.
That is why so many stressful situations end up in chaos.  That is why wars happen and nervous breakdowns occur.  It's a good moment for "time out" or for "treading water" and allowing time to pass, and it's a good period for thinking - but not for doing - as action at these times only serves to increase the problems.

Chaos is degrading to the physical world.  It's like a compost heap, where things rot down and become less than they were.  It's a destructive force that decomposes evolution.  And, when we talk of peace and harmony for ourselves, we are usually focussed not just internally but externally as well.  We usually don't want peace and harmony that exists only in ourselves because, truly, that can exist anyway by simply changing our attitudes.  No, we want peace and harmony in both our inner and outer worlds, simultaneously.

For humans, there is usually no beauty or order in chaos, for it destroys all we would build to make beautiful in our eyes.  Chaos has no ambition or creation that we can see, for it works against what we want to create.  So, to restore the beauty we want to see in our lives we must regroup, we must gather our energies for another rally, we must be prepared to face the challenges necessary to regain harmony... And, above all, we must accept stress as a natural part of this type of existence.

How can we drag ourselves out of chaos and find the strength to rebuild what was lost?
How can we accept stress as part of the harmonious existence when it has destroyed everything we have worked for?  The key is in the "natural" force of chaos.

In the compost heap of life, once all has been lost and decomposed, a "death" occurs.
The natural order of life is cyclical and rebirth follows death.  New life grows from the fertiliser of the compost heap.  And we are given new creative energy from the destruction of all that has had meaning for us.   It may not seem like that.  It may seem like we are simply struggling to survive, but in our survival we forge new methods and modes, we forge a new life and new actions, and we forge new balance. 

To allow chaos to become all, so that we may remain without stress, is inequitable.  Life is a balancing act not just to maintain harmony in beautiful moments, but also to maintain equity between its phases of action and inaction, or order and chaos.  Physical life is fundamentally about movement.  To not move, to not live to the fullest, is to encourage stagnation, and stagnation is death and non-existence on a physical level.  Chaos is also the latter, so to live fully we must accept struggle.  We must learn to keep trying to put in the effort even when we feel like giving up, and even after we have actually given up for a time.  That is the lesson of the physical world we live in.  And only real death releases us from it. 

Our rewards for these efforts are many. We can only achieve happiness in these moments of equipoise.  We can only see real beauty when we tread "the edge."  We can become the best we can offer to the world by  finding the strength to keep up the struggle.  Balance is not a gift, it is a work.  Harmony is not a blessing, it is a reward.
Equipoise is not a "natural" mode, it is a transcendence.