May has been one of those particularly busy months, the kind when you realize it’s the 18th of the month and wonder if you remembered to pay rent. (I did.) It really started back in April, with back-to-back three concert weeks, birthday celebrations, six of eight weekends out of town (that stretches till June!), meals out and more. I can’t much complain, mind you; my trips have taken me from Seattle to St. Augustine, for work and for play. (I’m fortunate enough to frequently combine the two.)
But of course, I’ve found myself spread a bit thin. I’m tired, and this round of mayhem won’t end for at least three more weeks. Last Monday encapsulated that exhaustion. I stepped off the plane from Seattle around 4 p.m. and arrived home by 4:30. Four days of constant walking and experiencing rendered me mute on the couch for a few hours, but by 7 I was up and on my way to trivia before catching the tail end of a friend’s birthday dinner. Come Tuesday, I was pretty tired.
I’m trying to find a balance here, something I suppose I’ll be striving for all my life. There’s work, there’s friendship, there’s pursuing new challenges, and somewhere in this mix I hope there’s time for me. Just me. I need that (quite a lot of it actually) to succeed at anything else.
I claimed yesterday for myself. I returned home from another weekend trip and quickly busied myself with cleaning and cooking. But after a few hours I gave in and did what I really wanted to do: hopped on my bike in the rain. I met up with a friend on the trail, then headed to the grocery store (back to the practical) before visiting another friend for coffee. The alone time on my bike followed by one-on-one conversations? Both essential parts of a good day, I think. I then returned home, skipped church (something I rarely do!) and cooked a fairly balanced dinner for myself. I completed a writing assignment, took a bubble bath and read, for pleasure, before bed. Save for skipping out on church, it was nearly as balanced a day as I can imagine.
Getting up at 4:30 a.m. probably helped.