Balance

I must admit these posts are making me feel uncomfortable.

I don't know what I'm talking about.

I can write out what needs to be done, but I struggle with it myself.  So I'm a fraud, but let's talk about balance.  Because life is one big balancing act.

Even after you recognize that you only have so much room in your life for pursuits, and even after you catch a vision of why you do what you do, you have to make it all work.

There are demands on our time that have nothing to do with how we want to spend our time.  Because we have to do things like laundry and fill the gas tank.  Of course, maybe they are all part of the big picture of caring for our families and ourselves but sometimes they just feel like endless endless tasks. (Do two endlesses make it feel more endless? Because that's what I was going for.)

Here's how I try (try) to make it all work.

I am a big fan of big to do lists and have been known to make lists for myself that have columns. (I don't recommend this.)  I keep making hopeful lists and optimistically, I enumerate and rank everything.  I try to remember the wise words I heard from Julie Beck.  She said that the things we do fall into three categories:  essential, important and nice to do.  Everyone's lists of essentials will look different but I think it's useful to look at your life and think about what is essential.  Do those things first.  Do the important things next.  The other things will fall into place.  Don't panic.
 
I try to tell myself not to panic.

(I don't always listen.)