The World is not Perfect

Sometimes when things are going good, the universe needs to balance itself out remind you that life cannot be perfect.

My daughters, I know they are not perfect, but they are beautiful and talented in their own ways and they are doing the best they can in school. They are weird and funny and inappropriate most the time and I love them for it.

I have a boyfriend who brings me flowers once a week and rarely lets me pay for dinner. When my vacuum breaks and he can't fix it (and he can fix mostly everything) he brings one to my house and tells me it fell off the back of a vacuum truck, then proceeds to vacuum half my house to check it out.

The work I do at my day job is awesome. I get to write and be creative and work part time so I can also write and be creative at home and try to continue to work on my goals of becoming a full time fiction writer some day.

I live in a lovely home, in a quiet neighborhood with a big yard, close to the girl's school.

Yes, that is all good. But then there are faulty memories and car accidents in life. There are delicate situations handled improperly by people who are supposed to care.  There are those who do not know when to shut their mouths and leave well enough alone and those who do not speak up when they should.

Balance. The Yin and Yang of life. It's necessary I suppose. Without it, what would we
be? A bunch of vapid, wastes of oxygen with no personality or purpose?

The balance, the struggles, the hard stuff, it challenges us, molds us, gives us character. I've faced many struggles in life and I wouldn't be who I am today without them, and I kind of like the me I am right now.

Also, adversity, it is a test of our strength. How much can we take? How much are we willing to take for the ones we care about, because sometimes the challenge isn't about us, sometimes it's in the name of our parent, child, or a complete stranger. Sometimes we have to be strong for someone else.

I'm not really a religious person, but all this reminds me of a quote from Mother Theresa:

So, I say bring it world. I thank you for all the good things I have, but I'm ready for the challenges too. I've been through worse. I've felt pain, I've seen death, I've hit rock bottom. It may be hard, I may cry, I may yell, but I'm pretty sure I can handle anything that comes my way.

F³A: The balancing act

Life has changed so drastically for me the last few years.  I haven't yet learned to balance everything.  When I focus on one thing, something else gets ignored.  For instance, I've been working on marketing my book this week, but I've not revised my manuscript hardly at all, and my house is definitely the self cleaning type.

And then there's soccer season.  Now, I don't have as much responsibility this year as far as soccer goes.  I don't help coach anymore.  I'm not really managing the team anymore, but still with the constant driving.  Thing One has practice every day unless she has a game.  That's M-F.  That's only the school team.  She also has practice Mon & Wed with her select team.  Her games are on Sundays.

Thing Two has practice also Mon & Wed.  She gets out the same time as Thing One those nights.  Her games are on Saturdays.  And when school gets back in session (teachers are on strike) tryout will continue for her school team.

That's seven days of soccer stuff.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I LOVE soccer, and I definitely love watching my kids play, and miss helping coach Thing Two's team (if I had the time I still would) but it's the driving that kills me (hence the hiring of my Girl Friday who starts work for me Monday).

 And I'm sorry, but the day job is killing me.  I mean, I have a great job, and I need it, and it's only part time, but I do much of the same stuff there as I do for my book stuff - blogging, facebook, twitter, and it kind of sucks the creativity out of me on top of taking away some of my writing hours.  But what are you going to do, right?

I've decided to have myself cloned.  I will have one clone to go to my day job, one to clean the house, one to do my marketing, and I will write and do the fun stuff with my kids while Girl Friday does the driving.  I think that's a good plan, don't you?

Oh, and I'm going to throw some yoga into the mix.  I've always hated yoga, but everyone's touting it these days, especially my friend Lori, so I'm going to try it. sigh.

Happy Friday, here are my Friday Scribbles (see that, I changed it from nibbles to scribbles so it's more writerly)

Random iPod shuffle song: No Love by Eminem featuring Lil Wayne (explicit lyrics).  I love Eminem.  Do you think he'd go out with me?  We're around the same age.

Book of the week: I'm still reading OyMG by Amy Dominy, but since Banned Book Week is coming up, I decided to go with The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, one of my favorite banned books.

Netflix of the week: Monk.  I think I'm on Season 5.  Loving it.

Quote of the week: "The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man." ~ Euripides

F³A: Recharging

Lately life has been confusing, busy, distressing.  Skies in my home town have been gray since September which makes, me tired, and sad.  I still haven't really found my balance between my day job, and writing, and blogging, and mothering, and marketing, and networking, etc etc.

The last couple days I melted down to mush.

I am now in Arizona.

My parent's house is gorgeous.  It's all marbled and big and open with high ceilings and windows that allow the sun to stream in through every room.

The sun is already warming the ground outside and the pool.

My kids woke up smiling.  So did I.

Everyone needs a recharge.  You may not be able to go to Arizona, but perhaps you could hole up in a cabin somewhere for the weekend.  Or take a trip to a mountain for a day hike.  Or sit at the beach and just watch people, and the birds, and the surf.  Or stay in your pajamas all day and do something you love whether it's writing, or listening to music, or watching 80's movies.

Take a break.  Recharge.  Breathe.  Your life will be there when you get back.