Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Quest for Balance: A Lament

The days are passing quickly now. Today I will be spending lots of hours on airplanes, returning from a mostly non-working vacation. Tomorrow I plow back into work and classes--it's hard to believe I'm starting my second year of classes for my PhD (it technically started yesterday). I'm excited about the classes I'm taking this semester. But I'm also aware that I'll be sucked into a hectic schedule again. I fear I may not be able to keep the balance I've been finally starting to regain in my writing life, as well as in my life in general.

As part of my mourning process, I'm taking a moment to say goodbye to the things I've enjoyed this summer.

Goodbye to long hours spent baking and cooking for friends, and hanging out with them. Goodbye, long hours spent journaling and brainstorming/working on creative projects. Goodbye, long unscheduled walks. Goodbye to hours that spent immersed in learning a new language. Goodbye to consumption of so much time by DVDs and fiction books.

Oh well, at least over the summer I've been getting energized about some of these things again, so I hope to be able to cycle through a variety of these activities (though in smaller quantities, of course) rather than getting sucked too much into just one of them, when I do have time.

And I have an eye on some creative writing projects that might be easier to slip into and out of this semester--I didn't have those last year. That will help. And this blog should help reminding me to keep things balanced as well.

Here's hoping it will be a healthier semester than the last one.

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