We all go through periods in our lives that seem to be a perfect storm – a time when everything collides in mass of pure nastiness.
Just for an example…let’s say your muggle job is somewhat demanding, you have family responsibilities for your elderly mother, and you have some health and money issues. Sure, there’s drama. Lots of drama at work, drama on the homefront (especially when your mother’s cable box dies)…drama, drama everywhere. But you’re doing okay…you’re handling it.
And Then…
The battery in your car dies. Fortunately, it’s a car you’re going to sell and you already have another, so you don’t get it fixed right away. That’s fine, except then the roof of your house starts to leak. So now to pay for a new roof you have to get the car fixed as soon as possible so you can hurry up and sell the car to pay for the roof. But what if the repair of the roof is more than the value of the car? And how will you pay for the repairs on the car? Well, you might need to borrow money. And THAT’S fine, except you’re in a ton of debt already and now you’ll likely be adding more despite working very hard to get the situation turned around. And the person you’ll probably need to borrow from is your mother. Even though you’re a “mature” adult and her cable box doesn’t work.
Oh – and on top of everything else, you’ve just decided to start a healthy eating program, so you can’t turn to ice cream for comfort. And that makes you grumpy.
In the middle of all of this, how are you supposed to keep writing? Or moving forward? Or moving at all?
Okay, I’ll stop using the second person pronoun (collective). How am I supposed to keep writing? How am I supposed to keep blogging? With all of the drama swirling around me, with house worries and car worries and health worries and money worries, how am I supposed to focus enough to be creative?
I think we all have these kinds of weeks to test our mettle, to see if we’re really serious. These weeks offer us a choice – be distracted, or keep plugging away in spite of it all.
Every time you let the mess distract you, you increase your own inertia and lose your life. That’s what I usually choose to do – I let the mess distract me. I fly around in a million different directions, let the storm blow me hither and yon. Then I wake up weeks later and realize the only thing I’ve accomplished is that I’ve thrown away precious days of my life.
This time I’m trying to plod along in spite of it all. I’m writing this blog post while I wait for the tow truck to take my car to get it fixed. I have maintained my healthy eating yesterday and today in spite of the overwhelming desire to visit my friends Ben and Jerry. I walked at lunch instead of mindlessly surfing Facebook. I’m writing.
That’s all I can do. Plod along. One foot in front of the other.
***UPDATE – it turns out my friends at AAA were able to fix the car and my costs were minimal. Yay! And the cable company is sending Mom a new cable box. Double-yay! Now on to the roof (not literally). Maybe the perfect storm is turning into a sunny tropical breeze?? Maybe??
***UPDATE Part 2 – I am now 3 days ice-cream free. This makes me sad. But as I eat a carrot stick whilst finalizing this post, I feel terribly self-righteous.
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