The Best Intentions

This summer life has clocked me in the head. Literally. As in, no matter how hard I think, my brain cannot compute where the time has gone and how it is not almost OCTOBER. So much for keeping up with my regular Tuesday blogs! Sigh.

But it’s okay. I’m coming to grips with a few things this month, and thought maybe I should share them with you.

1.       Sometimes it’s okay to not be able to keep up with everything you hoped to do. Life is a game of priorities, and sometimes the people in it get to come ahead of and above other goals or schedules.

2.       There is nothing in the world that will put a family of six in an emotional tailspin faster than a two year sequence that involves three big moves (not including my oldest daughter who added one more to that number) across a distance of 1500 miles. It is physically, emotionally, and mentally impossible to keep up with anything else—especially artistically, during this time.

3.       It’s important to live for life’s “ups” in order to make the “downs” more bearable.

4.       Sometimes even the best intentions just don’t add up to reality.

5.       Making my personal writing goals that involve manuscripts have become a much higher priority above blogging.

It’s that number five thing that has kept me from blogging. See, here’s the thing. I had big plans for this summer. I have books to draft and blogs to write, and conferences to attend, marketing to keep up on and, and, and… I’ve discovered that no matter how badly I want to keep up with all these things, the reality is that I can’t do everything, all the time.

So I let this blog slide a bit, and I don’t feel too bad about it because I have instead focused on other writing projects that I hope to see making important progress in the near future.

I very much hope that I am able to get back into a routine and keep up with blogging again this fall. But if I skip some weeks—if I don’t keep up the way I always have—I hope you can forgive me. I hope you’ll continue to come back and read anyway. Because I have come to the conclusion that it is more important to keep up with writing books than it is to stay consistent with this blog. (Though I truly do hope I can juggle both!)

Thanks for sticking with me, friends!

Stay tuned next tuesday for a report on the awesomeness that was the LDStorymakers Midwest Conference! 

Confronting the Things

In the previous post, I talked about small things, and how much harder everything else becomes when we try to cram in too much. It’s easy to say we’re going to cut out those small things, but not as easy to implement those changes. Every so often, this involves confronting people, or behaviors, or inner demons, or real ones  or whatever whatever.

Most of the time, I’d prefer to hide my head under a pillow and ignore the thing until it goes away. But. Doesn’t generally work, because when I remove the pillow the THING is still there. And it seems bigger. Like it grew when I wasn’t looking.  (It’s a THING in all caps.)

And then it’s harder to confront. But it still needs to be done. Vocally, physically, emotionally confronted.

*grumbles and whines*

It takes courage to speak up. To disagree. To *gulp* say no (especially when you originally said yes out of guilt or fear or whatever). But courage is one of those bricks we need. A really important one. So, it needs to be molded and fired to just the right shape.

I think I have that courage. But my well is running a little dry, so I’ll have to scoop way down to find it. But when I do, I’ll confront all the THINGS that consume me, and vanquish them. And then, my friends, I’ll figure out where to put the next brick.

What about you? Do you have a hard time confronting your THINGS? 

The Things that Matter Most

I recently listened to a speech given by a man who is a well known and highly prolific author. This man has been hugely and highly successful in his field. In large part, this has had to do with his ability to take on every project or idea ever thrown at him, which has—in turn—given him the opportunity to produce as many as four-six bestsellers EACH YEAR.

Wow, right?

But as I listened to this man speak, I found myself pondering my own abilities and what assignments like his could do to my private and personal life.

Truth=I wouldn’t have one.

As much as I want to write bestselling novels, or make a living as a writer, or, heck, even get another novel published—there are things I want even more. Things that are eternally more important to me.

My children. My husband. Other people who are an important part of my daily life. Even my writer friends.

The central theme here is people, which basically breaks down to relationships. And relationships with people take work. And time. And the ability to give back to others—something I don’t know how I would be able to do, were I to take on so much huge responsibility as the man I heard speaking.

Granted, I write a lot. Every day, I dedicate a certain amount of time to my career as an author. I’m good with deadlines, speed-writing, and knowing what to give up and when to get my stuff done. But I also know my limits.

As much as I’m happy for the success of the above mentioned speaker, I don’t envy him. Clearly, he’s really good at working with his hands full. Good for him that he can pull it off and still manage to have a wife and kids.

Unfortunately, I am not like that. I need my sleep. And my family. And at the end of the day, I will always choose to prioritize relationships. If that means I can only write one, or two, or three bestsellers a year, well. I’m okay with that.  

Because even though writing is an important part of my life—there are other things that matter more.

What about you? What are your priorities?