Aleen Mean

Learning Where to Give

The other day it occurred to me, not for the first time, that my commute to and from work is an additional part-time job.

On a short day, I spend 10 hours away from home; frequently, traffic is bad or I have to work late to meet a deadline and my day is even longer. No wonder I’m so tired every night! I spend my weekend running errands, prepping food, catching up on the chores I neglect, and trying to recover from my week. By the time I’m ready to put some work in on my personal projects, it’s Monday and I have to start all over again.

It’s too much.

I’ve got to let something go, and unfortunately I think that means that writing will have to take a (continued) back burner. It breaks my heart, but so does the constant berating I’ve been inflicting on myself every day I haven’t posted something on here. If you’re keeping track, that’s a lot of days I’ve been beating myself up!

It took a lot of soul-searching for me to winnow my projects down to just creative writing, helping my husband as he starts his business, photography, and exercise. More recently, it’s taken weeks of stress for me to realize even that is just too much for me right now.

But soon, I hope, my projects at work will be a little less intense and I will be able to work from home more. When that happens, expect to hear from me more often :)