I watched my daughter practice juggling. One ball, then two, then three balls were sent flying into the air. As gravity pulled each ball down, she caught it and sent it flying again. How did she learn to do that? I can barely manage to throw and catch one ball.
My life is like juggling balls–a variety of glass balls, plastic balls, rubber balls. If I have launched too many into the air, I will lose control and some of them will fall. The glass balls—relationships, important commitments, time for self—must not be allowed to fall. Other things that are not so important may sometimes have to be let drop in order to avoid dropping the glass balls.
As I slowly emerge from my shelter and look back at the past Covid-controlled year, I consider what keeps me so busy and what I might change. I regularly write from 10:30 to 12:00 every Tuesday through Friday. That decision keeps me moving forward with my blog, books, journal, etc. I could choose to only write three mornings a week instead of four. But I don’t want to drop blogging completely. I am part way through a middle-grade novel about a young boy named Hank. It is set in the early 1900’s when Hank, who wants to be an outlaw, becomes a friend of Butch Cassidy. His father mails the bricks from Salt Lake City to Vernal, Utah using the US Postal Service. How will this action taken by his father change Hank’s feelings? I want more time to work on that novel, not less. Editing the Tri-Valley Writers Newsletter always takes time at the end of the month. I don’t want to drop that so I’m working on how to make that time more efficient. Storytelling on Zoom is another ball that I don’t want to drop. I love the oral tradition of telling stories. So maybe if I get a Mailchimp account, I can make life simpler—but only after I put some time into setting things up. Perhaps I’ll look into this later.
I evaluate my relationships. I need to reserve more time to spend with my husband and the son who lives with us. I need to connect to my children who live in other states. I value my friends and wish to reserve time to spend with them. We have missed our in-person contact during the past Covid year.
Cooking meals, doing dishes and cleaning house consumes time. Sometimes I do have to drop those balls, but if I do that regularly, my house and mind become cluttered. Writing becomes more difficult. I think the answer is efficiency. If I can become more efficient with the mundane balls in my life, I will have more time for the things that really matter.