Wednesday Wondering
Since I've started work on my something new, aka Triple D, I've been aware that where I am now is similar to where I was a year ago. With one crucial difference. Triple D is not the gift from the universe that StT was and has been. I'm not drawing so fully on my own realm of knowledge. Which is fine. It's good to mix it up.
But it does mean that I'm thinking much more consciously about how I do this and how I balance the various elements of my life: Writing, paying work (aka editing, teaching), family, exercise, reading, gardening.
Balance is such a tricky thing. In my case, exercise is the thing that doesn't get done. All too often. And that's too bad, because when BD was in elementary school, I would go for a two-mile walk every day after I put her one the bus. It was so easy. I managed to keep it up even after she didn't need/want me waiting with her. I'd walk out the door with her and keep going. When a yoga studio opened, I added one yoga session a week and did that for five or six years and felt great.
Then I started working as a freelancer. The walks became occasional, twice or possibly three times a week. When I started teaching, I had to give up yoga, because it was on a teaching day. The walk became even less frequent. Last summer walking was out of the question because I developed tendonitis (now thankfully gone).
I've gotten better, generally. This past semester I decided to spend an hour riding a bike in the college fitness center the two days I'm on campus. The yoga center added a Thursday morning class that fits my schedule. But I don't teach in the summer, and I've been missing the walks. Yesterday, mid-afternoon, I made myself go out for one. This morning, after I dropped BD's BFF off at her summer internship, I stopped at the local rec path and put in two miles. Because that's what seems to work for me: if I have to be out and there's an option, I will take it. But getting myself out is difficult, and that means I don't get the workout I need. I seem to be driven enough with the rest of my life--I can't imagine not reading or writing, and I love spending time with HH and BD--but exercise is a whole other matter.
How about you? What part of life do you find most difficult to fit in? How do you deal with it?
But it does mean that I'm thinking much more consciously about how I do this and how I balance the various elements of my life: Writing, paying work (aka editing, teaching), family, exercise, reading, gardening.
Balance is such a tricky thing. In my case, exercise is the thing that doesn't get done. All too often. And that's too bad, because when BD was in elementary school, I would go for a two-mile walk every day after I put her one the bus. It was so easy. I managed to keep it up even after she didn't need/want me waiting with her. I'd walk out the door with her and keep going. When a yoga studio opened, I added one yoga session a week and did that for five or six years and felt great.
Then I started working as a freelancer. The walks became occasional, twice or possibly three times a week. When I started teaching, I had to give up yoga, because it was on a teaching day. The walk became even less frequent. Last summer walking was out of the question because I developed tendonitis (now thankfully gone).
I've gotten better, generally. This past semester I decided to spend an hour riding a bike in the college fitness center the two days I'm on campus. The yoga center added a Thursday morning class that fits my schedule. But I don't teach in the summer, and I've been missing the walks. Yesterday, mid-afternoon, I made myself go out for one. This morning, after I dropped BD's BFF off at her summer internship, I stopped at the local rec path and put in two miles. Because that's what seems to work for me: if I have to be out and there's an option, I will take it. But getting myself out is difficult, and that means I don't get the workout I need. I seem to be driven enough with the rest of my life--I can't imagine not reading or writing, and I love spending time with HH and BD--but exercise is a whole other matter.
How about you? What part of life do you find most difficult to fit in? How do you deal with it?