Tags

ver·ti·go

    1. The sensation of dizziness.
    2. An instance of such a sensation.
  2. A confused, disoriented state of mind

Whenever I try to take on all the things my life demands at once, I find myself in that state of vertigo.  The world seems to swim right before my eyes with the overwhelming amount of work that needs to be done.  What seems to work for me is taking action and spending a short amount of time on it daily until the task is done.   I can’t tell you how many people, including my husband, refuse to learn this principle.  They think if a little is good, a lot is better, but that’s not true.

Working on my manuscript a little at a time, consistently the same amount of time everyday, does more for me than emersing myself for a full day.  Why?  Because while I’m busy creating a world for characters, the world I physically live in spins out of control.  I may delegate some things, but mother’s attention is still needed.  The days I have allowed myself to focus like that, I find myself spending more time away from my work fixing the damage done by neglect in other life areas.  Compare that to a constant maintenance that *magically* yields extra pockets of time to use the way I need to – more time for plot, more time for character development, more time for beefing up dialogue and descriptions.

In essence, more time for writing.  =)

I also believe there are times when you just have to let everything go and get something over with.  That’s what I did this past week.  It had nothing to do with writing, or homeschooling, or even home maintenance (until the weekend anyway).   Life was purely about my husband’s new job, getting his blood pressure down (he’s now on a small dosage of meds), and helping the kids adjust to the fact that Dad wasn’t going to be there every single day.  Happily, he came home this weekend before leaving for a month, so they could see that even after long spells away from home, Daddy still comes back.  But now that the job thing is settling down, I am able to go back to reestablishing our family rhythms – which includes exercise for me.  More exercise means more oxygen to the brain….  and we all know what better brain power does for our typing fingers!

I think that’s what it all boils down to – the more balanced our lives are, the less we’re distracted by it.  Less distractions, more focus.  Better writing.  It’s the small things that enable the big things.  Here’s to saying no to vertigo!

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