Balancing Acts

Children love to test their balance and, in turn, their parents heart rates. From pivoting back and forth on one leg of a stool while drinking hot chocolate reading "Calvin and Hobbes" to walking on the edge of a wall which, in their mother's eyes, is as high as Victoria Falls, when in reality would cause one, maybe two broken ribs at best.
I guess this prepares us in our lives for all the balancing we have to do. One person who has to walk a tightrope all the time is a wife. How does she manage such a frail thing as the male ego?
How does she encourage without patronizing? How does she motivate without nagging? How does she comfort without enabling self-pity? My wife has been walking that tight rope for nearly half of her life (it will be exactly half her life November 4th, 2006) Sometimes, I think she's really slipped, when in fact, her footing is sure, her parasol perfectly placed for balance. It is MY perspective, face down in the net, that is out of whack. But, she'll admit to more slips than I've noticed.
And now, as our oldest son is just 14 months away from being a teenager, and two more right behind him, she's going to have to walk four different wires. As she looks down, she fears, just as before, that a slip will cause far more damage than what is really the case.
She's gonna need a good pair of shoes and big long pole for the next 50 years or so.
You go girl!