Busy
A few years ago I asked an acquaintance when she knew it was time to make the leap from part time hobbyist to full time photographer. Her answer surprised me. I had expected her to say something about money, but instead she said,
“When I couldn’t do it all. When my full-time job was getting in the way of all I had to do or could do, for my part time passion project.”
I didn’t really understand THEN. But recently, it has become CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Let’s take a look at my schedule this week, for example.
On Monday I have a Wwink Board Meeting from 4:45-6pm and a critique group meeting from 6:30-8:30pm.
On Wednesday I will leave at 5:30am to travel to Eau Claire for a school visit and follow it up with a workshop facilitation for the Chippewa Valley Writer’s Guild. I will return home around 11pm.
The Wednesday workshops (which are ALL BRAND NEW… I know… I’m crazy) were outlined during some down time on a field trip last week. The handouts and beautiful laminated materials were made this weekend, and the slide shows to accompany the workshops will be made after I am done writing, formatting and posting this blog. (It’s Sunday night as I type this in my basement office. I am hoping and praying that I will cross a few more items off my to do list before I run out of steam and go to bed. I am also saying prayers of thanks while my husband bathes and puts our two boys to bed.)
I’ll work at my regular teaching job Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
I am secretly thankful that a publisher (eek! A REAL publisher!) has not gotten back to me with feedback on the next stage of our project because I have no idea when I would be able to work on it… until Thursday, that is, if I am still vertical and forming coherent verbal (and/or written) sentences.
There are book signings in town Tuesday and Saturday this week that I would like to attend, for literary community civility, and also connection making opportunities.
This schedule of events includes zero time spent on either of my three manuscripts in progress, zero time on social media, zero time journaling, zero time promoting my upcoming events and workshops/retreats … all of which I will probably try to do in spare moments of time this week (cough-at stop lights-cough, cough-during prep time at school-cough, cough-while my children are in the bath tub-cough.)
Whew.
In my family we often say, "busy is better than bored". I think this week I'm going to nail that sentiment, in spades. Don’t get me wrong. These are all good things. This is all good stuff that is in the works, but it requires TIME. Time enough that I do not have.
I cannot wait until June when I get to make my LEAP.
It will be work to structure my time for writing (and writing related tasks) while everyone else is home. It will be an adjustment for all of us, but I owe it to myself and to my family to do this well. It is a challenge I am looking forward to tackling. Until June I will continue to carve out whatever time I can to get the job done and realize that for a while longer life is going to be very, very, busy.
But my hope, is that when summer comes, and school is done (for good for me!) that I will settle into a time that is not quite so busy. I hope that life will balance out a bit, and that I will be able to breathe a bit easier. But if not, I will remind myself that busy is better than bored and be thankful for all the work that is coming my way.