Balance

As some of you know, I'm writing a book and I'm finding it tough to balance the time to write with the time to exercise, time to work, time to parent, time to be with friends, time to eat, time to think, time to love, time to clean house and ... oh yeah, time to blog.

I was thinking about balance and how we can get so out of balance when we let one part of our life dominate another.

I was thinking about how emotional artists can be and that passion can easily steer them in the wrong direction -- and even when they are going in the RIGHT direction -- they can just go too FAR in that direction.

There's a lot to be said for passion, but it can get out of hand. It took me a long, long time to realize the side of me that can write passionate, emotional words was the same side of me that would make it a bit of a roller coaster to live in the world. It took me a long time to understand the electricity I can pick up from the world, funnel through my body, heart, mind down into a pen onto paper, or through my fingers onto this screen, that those bolts of lightning were a little dangerous to play with and were better left locked up in a box on my desk some days when I had a regular life to lead, drycleaning to drop at the corner shop, groceries to buy, bills to pay.

So I'm going to write a little bit about balance today, but not too much, just enough.

I've been thinking too about Michael Jackson and Phil Spector. Emotional artists going off the deep end, but then I can't be too quick to judge, perhaps they are completely innocent of what they've been accused of. But whether innocent or guilty, it's hard to fathom what it must be like to keep your life in balance when you're going through the challenges those two are currently facing.