I have so many plates spinning that they all crash eventually. For the. most past, I manage to only drop one or two at a time, and they aren’t always high-publicity, important plates, so no one really knows but me. But I drop them. Actual work, other work, other work I want to be doing, other work I plan to be doing, momming, the adminstrative duties of having kids, the administrative duties of owning a house, the actual labor of having a house. The oldest daughter curse of trying to do everything imaginable out of duty. Running yourself ragged for sixteen hours a day to reflect at the end of it and see nothing accomplished. The hamster wheel of working at everything.
Are the kids getting me 100%? No. Is work getting me 100%? Also no. Is my house clean? Nope. Am I writing like I thought I would? No.
Is this all a “me” problem? Yes. Absolutely yes.
Nora Roberts, the best-selling author, was asked at a Q&A how she balanced writing and kids. She said that the key to juggling is to know that some of the balls you have in the air are made of plastic and some of them are made of glass. If you drop a plastic ball, it bounces, it’s still intact, no harm, no. foul. If you drop a glass ball, though, it shatters, so you have to know which balls are glass and which are plastic, and. then prioritize catching the glass ones.
Maybe I’m just bad at categorizing my balls (I’m also not mature enough to say. that without smiling, my loves). I assign importance to bullshit. I mistake “high priority” with loudness. The squeaky wheels get the oil, so to speak. It’s Christmas, and I always have so many plans, and it speeds by and we don’t do them. So I think, “next year is the year!” and then it’s next year and then she’s grown and I didn’t do it.
Anyway. 2024 is the year of slowing down, decluttering, and prioritizing.
