Confession Tuesday

It's Tuesday! Time for your confessions. Share a bit of yourself with us and we promise to do the same. Don't forget to say hello to the folks doin' time in The Confessional (see sidebar).


I had rare day off from work yesterday, so I spent a good portion of my three-day weekend retrenching and re-evaluating. Instead of blogging, I worked on home projects, visited with friends, and wrote, of course.


Unfortunately, there was a major hiccup in my schedule, which meant that the time I set aside to write suddenly disappeared. Drat!

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On the bright side, I have a draft of a poem--a pantoum! For those who don't know, a pantoum is a series of four-line stanzas; the second and fourth lines of each stanza become the first and third lines of the next stanza. My BP oil spill poem works well in this form. I'm not posting it because I want to submit it somewhere. Still needs a lot of work, but it feels good to finish a draft.

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For my second manuscript, I have given myself a deadline of July 10 to have it in better working order. With the inclusion of the Misery Islands poem, my long poem, the manuscript should be ready for a first review by someone other than me.

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When different parts of my life are out of sync, the balance I seek to achieve quickly goes out the window. I was bemoaning this fact with my BFF Kristi yesterday over the phone. Heaven forbid my home, work, AND writing life are off kilter at the same time. It's bad enough if one of those aspects are unbalanced, but if two of them are out of whack, talk about a disaster!


Does that ever happen to you?


Comments

Lisa Cohen said…
Lord, yes. The story of the past 8 months. Leaks, floods, home repair hell, emergency appendectomy, parents' failing health, sister who won't talk to me (recently repaired! Yay!), totaled car, job-stressed spouse, false starts on 2 story ideas. . .

But the thing is, balance is not a end point. It's a process. I don't look for balance, I practice it on a daily basis, looking for the places of gratitude and grace that exist despite the chaos.

Somedays I find that grace better than others.

And always, I am grateful for knowing people like you, people who understand that struggle and who value the art that emerges.
Catherine said…
When you think about it, "balance" can only happen when everything is in balance. A see-saw for instance - if you push one end down, the other goes up, so you can't have one thing out of balance without affecting everything else.
On the other hand, balance is boring. It means nothing moves. Static balance, that is. I think dynamic balance is more achievable - a sort of pendulum situation where nothing moves too far off centre before swinging back again. You don't ride a bike by sitting rigidly perfectly centred in the saddle - you have to go with the flow (she says, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the day job, short of sleep, lacking sunshine and totally without any time to write or anything else)
January said…
I like the phrase, "dynamic balance." Thanks Catherine.

I think the lack of sleep, lack of sunlight, and no time to write would drive me crazy. Good luck!
January said…
Ah, Lisa. We should get together soon. You've had quite a year, too.

I like thinking of balance as something you look for daily rather than weekly or monthly. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Yes, somedays grace is easier to find than others.

*hugs*

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