Above is my new note pad. I created it myself on Vistaprint (if you have not discovered the Vistaprint free product junket yet – we’ll talk later). I think the pad sums up the speed and general sentiment of my life these days.

Here we are at the end of September and I honestly struggle to recall a peaceful moment since my vacation in March. Alas, much has gone on here in that time period. Our area waged a major flood fight which essentially put the whole community in fight mode. Then the university community was challenged with cramming in the rest of the semester into the weeks left. Added to those activities were my typical April and May activities with annual research projects I do for FEMA. June was replete with conferences and the Boy’s State annual exercise; and, in early July we heard we received the big planning grant from the Department of Education and started working on that. That was the last recognition of solid time I presently possess and now we are at the end of September.

Did I miss my highway exit? How many miles until the next rest stop?

And so the pad is apropos. I am not quite sure which action is occurring, but I am sure it is one of the two – or perhaps both. I guess the answer depends on how you define “life”. Life is certainly more than work…this I know. But life is also achieving the things that you believe you are here to achieve in your time on the planet….it is about contributing. Alas, I am feeling both a bit run over by life these days and at the same time as if life is passing me by. So I guess life ran me over and then passed me by. What a visual…societal road kill (that does help explain the way my hair has looked this past week though).

I recognize that I am the one who set the speed limit for life as I know it. I know there are exits and rest stops along the highway, but I sometimes I pass them by to make better time. I decided a couple of weeks ago that from here on out I was going to be stopping at a few more rest stops along the way. The highway is still there waiting regardless of whether a short respite is taken. And respite, which can come in so many forms and often cost only minutes, is so necessary for balance.

So my official new month resolution (because who has time to wait for a new year?) is to find a bit more balance by pulling off the highway from time to time. I suspect that I may at times still get run over and end up on the side of the road with tire tracks across my face (they do sell a lotion for that right?). If such is the case, for heaven’s sake can someone toss me a brush?

Day eighty-seven of the new forty – obla di obla da

CC