Life Happens

I keep telling myself that I will plan out time on a Saturday morning to write out a decent blog entry.  But life has a way of getting in the way.  After a nice workout, I had no time to really collect my thoughts.  My kitchen blinds needed fixing, the backyard had not been raked of grass clippings since I mowed the yard earlier in the week, a couple of rooms in my house needed to be cleaned, laundry was waiting, and I found out a friend of mine is in town tonight.

So the great blog entry has been reduced to this, just me trying to say something as the final load of laundry is running in the dryer.

Such is life.

Balance

I had made plans to write every morning before I went to work.  I would get up at 5:00 in the morning, head to the kitchen, pour myself a glass of cold water, sit down at my laptop and write for at least an hour.  A lot of mornings that’s exactly how it happened and I was very pleased to get a little further along with my novel.

But some days don’t work like that.  Rising at 5:00, writing, and then heading off to work makes for a tired guy.  Plus most nights I’m bringing work home, spending it on my work laptop doing updates and preparing for the next work day.

(And that doesn’t include meetings before and/or after work)

So there have been mornings when the alarm hits 5:00 and my brain cannot function enough to even generate a page.  Writing is important but so is rest.  Because the real world doesn’t care that you’ve got a notion to put down a story that keeps dancing around in your head.  It expects you to be at certain places and performing your tasks, sometimes beyond the level of expectations.

So how do I somehow keep all of this balanced?  It’s not easy but it’s a challenge that I accepted a long time ago.  It’s really about maximizing time.  There are 24 hours in a day and I try to take full advantage of them.  At times it doesn’t work and things get left undone.  But when I can make it happen, a lot of great things get accomplished.

Luckily, today is Sunday and there is no work pressure on my plate.  I’ll get a few pages of my story done and my work updates will be finished with no problems.  But Monday starts the 5:00 schedule all over again.  I’m just hoping I can stay on point all five days this week.

Just A Saturday Morning Thought

Finally I have a moment to myself.  It’s been day after day of being yanked in a multitude of directions.  People wanting, needing, requesting, and whatever verbage you could think of…well, that was all directed at me.  I’m only one man but I have to wear many hats.  I try to keep them all neatly stacked in my mental closet but sometimes there’s no time for organization.  You grab what you can and hope you have the right.  Usually I’m right but there are times I’ve walked into areas without the proper headgear.

But right now I don’t have to worry about hats.  There are no places to go or things to do or people to see.  There’s just me, this laptop, and an empty space with no light.  If my parents saw me like this they would plead for me to turn the light on so I wouldn’t ruin my eyes.  That may be fine for later but I’m liking this scenario of putting my fingers to the keys with only the illumination of the computer screen as my light source.

Soon I’ll have to venture out into the world.  People still want or need or request my presence so my hats are ready.  But having this moment to myself, to have some thoughts of my own, is something I need to do more often.

Ode To Poetry

No matter how far I stray

I must return to you

for we’ve walked together along this way

a journey of which you’ve remained true.

I’ve dabbled here and there and at times

I took detours to find other routes.

Even then you were patient, waiting for me to find

what was there and the results that came about.

But in the end, I’ve always returned

and you waited for me with open arms,

knowing there were things I needed to learn

and the lessons gathered caused no harm

but enhanced the journey we continue to share

toward unchartered horizons out there.

PSA

Corporate raiders

become moral messengers

as they post PR campaigns

to lecture the masses

on what’s right and wrong.

With talking points

so aesthetically pleasing

no one would dare

disagree with any statements,

they set out to establish

a new paradigm based on

their utopian visions

with the assurance

the masses will follow.

But the smart ones know better.

They can see through

the slick marketing tactics

and generic scripts to

find an agenda that rings

too hollow and brings

no real solutions.

They know many will follow

just because the message

sounds good, but they

know those foolish souls are

heading into a barren valley

while they search for

more fertile land.