I’m trying to think of a reason to post another Neil Finn picture…hell, do I need a reason? We’ll see.
Writing is a full-time job–not a hobby. Or I’d like it to be. I could write, research, blog, and connect all day. As my fictional world spreads across the interenet, the realization grows that there isn’t enough time to do it all. Oh, there’s all the time in the world as well. Everyone is busy and everyone is tired, but so much of that is self-imposed. How much of all this stuff really has to be done? The only time I must lose sleep is when my son is up all might sick. The fear of failure or death or something equally foolish keeps me at the keyboard when I should be sleeping.
Many books are out there on the writing life and the writing craft–all promising inspiration and change and a multitude of things that really they can tell you about but only you can deliver. I procrastinate a lot by reading them and telling myself they’ll teach me something. Sometimes they actually do. One book, Page by Page by Heather Sellers, contains excellent insight on being busy and why we say we are.
Most of what makes me so busy is just myself. Write more, create more, nothing I do is enough. I didn’t spend enough time with my son or with my husband or with my friends or with my students or with my dog or with my apartment. But the sun always follows the moon and the blue sky follows the rain and the scab follows the cut on the skin. Hey, times passes whether I write a great book. The world moves if get published and if I don’t. I simply (simply?) have an unending need to be doing something.
And a boundless envy of others. Every other mother has figured it out and every other writer has too. I’ve been given a thousand breaks in this life and yet I can still be foolish enough to feel that it’s one break too few.
I’ve been reading Momma Zen by Karen Maezen Miller–can’t you tell?
I had the perfect post composed in my head while I walked the dog. Now, I’m at the keyboard and I’m rambling. And I’m rambling because like everybody else I want more time to everything I want to do and time isn’t agreeable.
Life is full of choices. I remind myself to stop complaining and make them.
Marta Bacon 
Yes, my dear, I can tell. But I like it when you tell me more.
I loved your book and plan to pass it on. Thanks for stopping by. I’ve posted a bit more about it above.
“Every other mother has figured it out and every other writer has too.” Yep. 🙂
I hear you! I hear you! I am so grateful I do not work outside the home. I felt like I was in a prison when I worked full-time. Now I let housework slide, and I try to stick to writing regularly. However, I need my sleep no matter what. I’m one of these people who simply can’t function at all without a lot of sleep.