When your schedule changes - work schedule, family schedules, what have you - do you lose the threads of your life?
It's something that has always plagued me - and if you look at the date on this entry and the date of my last entry, you'll see it's something that has plagued me recently. My work schedule recently went through a rapid succession of changes, right when I was trying to figure out a solid gym schedule.
First world problems at its finest.
Yet as silly as it may seem to read these words (and trust me, I feel super silly writing them down and seeing them in black and white), it's something that really unbalances me. Routines get thrown out the window, and all of the sudden I feel like I'm slipping off the side of the ship, scrabbling at anything I could hold onto, except all I'm grabbing at is water.
Maybe I have too much on my plate. I just started an Etsy shop and I'm still trying to build up an inventory; I'm trying to finish the book I started last November during NaNoWriMo (not to mention the one I started last year, and the one I've been writing since college); I'm trying to regularly contribute to this blog; I'm trying to do a yearlong photo project (Project 52). In between all of that, I'm working what has increasingly become an aggravating retail job, because my creative projects won't pay my bills yet. Yeah - I'm sure I have too much on my plate, but the thought of dropping any of those projects fills me with an intense sadness and a tinge of regret.
So I've convinced myself - perhaps falsely - that it's just a matter of prioritizing tasks. Obviously I can't write a chapter, write a blog post, AND make a jewelry piece (and photograph it, edit it, and create an Etsy listing) all in one evening after work. So what then? I make a schedule? One day I write - one day I craft a piece - and then there's all the other detritus of life like dishes and laundry and grocery shopping.
I know I'm not alone in this. Human beings are wired to want it all, but somewhere along the way we never figured out how to actually physically have it all. I doubt this post will get me any answers - indeed, maybe there aren't any answers - yet it's a bit of a catharsis, getting it all down on virtual paper. Never mind the fact that it ticks off one of the priorities on my list once I hit "publish".
Then again, maybe you do have answers. When your routine or your schedule gets thrown off track, how do you coax it back on the rails? What do you add? What do you take away? If it's easy for you - why? If it isn't, what tricks have you learned?