It's only Tuesday, right? I'm apprehensive about my responsibilities this week. The layers of planning material in my head keep shifting, and I'm terrified of what might be falling to the bottom. It's dark down there. Things might biodegrade without me even noticing.
I fall asleep to syllabus material, and wake considering supper plans versus ingredients on hand. A small but persistent section of my brain is wholly devoted to identifying time slots in which I can fit in a run. I'm visiting a book club this week, there are teacher interviews to arrange for each child, and I'm in charge of facilitating a panel discussion at the Wild Writers Festival on Saturday, at which I'd like very much to appear a) prepared, b) composed, and c) sane. (If I could actually be all of these things, that would be even better.) The clock is ticking on resolving a gymnastics decision, swim girl has a big meet in Brantford all weekend, and we need to plan a birthday party for next weekend. What else? Oh, the asthma puffer ran out this morning. Our tub tap is leaking rather frantically. Our stove needs repair.
I wrote a piece for Open Book Ontario, which they've posted today. I'll admit it reads rather manically. It's on my writing habits, and the peacefulness of my office. This office is my calm centre. I've started doing yoga in here some mornings, with kundalini music playing, and it's pure bliss.
Much of my happiness comes from motion. I see my eight-year-old spin on a bar, hold herself upside-down, toes pointed, strong and glowing. I see the game unfolding on the field, the risks being taken. I see my eldest and me racing up and down grocery aisles late at night, revelling in the hunt for bargains, laughing at our impulses and follies: for me, corn flakes; for him, anything new and available for a limited time only, such as the soda that purports to taste like chocolate.
But I'm tired. I'm tired, and I know, too, that much of my happiness comes from points of connection, from stillness within the motion. Holding CJ's hand on the walk home from the school bus. Washing his hair in the pool showers. Conversations as we drive somewhere together, me and a kid, or two, or three. I'm always looking for what I can share with each child, and that keeps changing. I remember when I gave the kids a bath every night before bed, and they remember how I pretended to be a giant making kid soup. Now we're splintered and running, and I'm looking for those moments to stretch out my hand and grab on to theirs, figuratively if not literally, as we whirl in our separate circles.
The days look impossible if I try to hold them all at once.
So maybe, really, I shouldn't try. I won't try. If there's any secret to this time, it's that. Do what you're doing, be where you are. Make your lists, prepare, yes, but know what you're waiting for, and recognize it when it arrives, no matter how small it seems. It's none of it small. You know what I mean.Labels: exercise, kids, mothering, office, readings, spirit, work, writing