My head is full of new experiences.
Rowing a boat for miles and miles under the hot sun. Sleeping under the stars. Eating fresh lettuce from the garden. Tying a double half hitch knot. Visiting towns I’ve never explored.
Strangely, I’m finding that I have less to write about these days, not more. I have little to say about the new places I’m going, new people I’m meeting, and new stuff I’m doing. Any new ideas are slowly warming in the rice cooker of my mind, inaccessible for now.
Read MoreThe other day, I felt like playing hooky.
It was just past 10:00 AM and I had completed my planned tasks for the morning. For fifteen minutes, I scrounged for things to do, but I didn’t want to do any of the things I turned up.
An hourly employee gets paid for that kind of “in between work,” in which you are technically at work but not really doing anything. However, as a business owner, I do not. I realized that there was no reason to sit at my desk. I wanted to go outside and play, and I could.
Read MoreLately, everyone I talk to feels like they should be doing more.
There’s a sense of guilt over who we could be vs. who we are.
But all we really are obligated to do is stay alive. We’ve got to eat and sleep and bathe.
Then we have responsibilities to the people depending on us: our pets and minor children. And we need to hold up our end of the bargain in our committed relationships.
Read MoreYears ago, I worked with one of my best friends as a contract teacher at a music school.
She taught violin, and I taught piano, guitar, and singing.
The nature of being a contract music teacher is that your schedule and income are shifting frequently. In general, the times directly after school fill up fast and then you get older students coming after dinner. Once you’re pretty well established, you can have a solid schedule with no gaps, from 3:00 PM until 7:00 or even 8:00 PM each weekday, and more on the weekends.
Read MoreI had an agenda for the summer.
Of course, I had already given up on my usual summer agenda of traveling, visiting family, and having a lighter workload than usual due to school being out. So, my new agenda accounted for the coronavirus restrictions and complications and mandated a season of creative work. I planned for a high output, taking advantage of plenty of free time.
That didn’t happen. Even though I have the time, taking care of immediate concerns consumes most of my energy, leaving little left over for more work.
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