A Grain of Balance

I set aside my sword to test something different with my balance this morning. Finding a single smooth ceramic marble rolled beneath the weapon rack, I set it on the polished deck plate. Instead of simply balancing myself, I knelt and placed the sphere directly on the flat tip of an upturned training baton held upright in my palm. The ship's engines thrummed through the soles of my boots, threatening to shake it free. Lowering my breath to match each pulse of the deck, I made tiny micro-adjustments in my wrist. The marble wobbled, found the dead center of gravity, and stayed completely motionless.