I’ve said how hard my color guard experience has been. (Here’s how my color guard adventure started out…) It’s tough on everything–my body, my schedule, my brain…My body’s taking the most beating, though. I’ve had two black eyes, too many big bruises to count, swollen fingers, and a knee that now seems to be permanently swollen. On the plus side, I’m getting lots of exercise and haven’t really needed to work out–not from a calorie-burning viewpoint, anyway.
Still, I’ve been trying to make it to yoga 2-3 times a week. I find that even though yoga is way more strenuous than I ever expected it to be when I started it last December, my body needs it! Yoga is kind to me and forgiving in a way that color guard is not, so it helps offset some of the abuse I’m putting myself through. It gives my physical self some balance.
In writing, it’s the same thing. I’ve been–ok, abusing seems like the wrong word–forcing my mind to concentrate on various income-producing projects for several months. Copyediting, fiction for hire, coursework, etc., have filled my weeks. You’d think I’d be tired of words by now. But I’m not. I’m just tired of that forced focus.
And I’m so excited that over the next two weeks, I have four whole days set aside to focus on a poetry project. I’ve been revising one poem every day for a while, but now I’m going to have four blocks of time, about 5 hours each, to devote to this project–yay! I’ll be able to really immerse myself into it.
On Facebook recently, Anne Marie Pace posted that her agent told her she had to work on a novel for an hour and then she could reward herself with a bit of work on a picture book. I love that, because I strike those kinds of bargains with myself all the time. Sometimes, in the rush to get all my work done, though, I forget to reward myself with the time to write what I really love to write. But with encouragement from Susan Taylor Brown and Lisa Bullard, I’ve put those four days on my calendar and can’t wait for them!
What are your balanced pairs–the things that seem similar to other people, but one is really more work, and the other one is fun?