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| Bullet Trains move at ridiculous speed! |
As a touring artist, most of my life moves at ridiculous speed when I am awake.
Ridiculous speed is something many people can relate to.
Got a manuscript to my agent on Wednesday. Hooray! A moment to breathe….not so fast.
Hadn’t really cleaned the house for a week while I wrestled with prose. Got that done…mostly. Started packing for the weekend festival. Made necessary arrangements for a couple of other gigs coming up, thought about what I might like to write on next…Agent emailed me a manuscript and asked me if I wanted to edit it. So, the next writing project started almost immediately.
Yesterday morning I got up at 6:30am, had a quick breakfast, took a quick shower, drove an hour to a school, set up my sound system, did two shows, took the system down, drove an hour home, grabbed lunch on the way, packed the rest of my stuff, sent out an artist survey for the school I’d just visited, filed my mileage, made an appointment for my daughter at a spa for her birthday, waited in a forever long line at Costco to fill up my car, drove to Chapel Hill to pick up my husband after he dropped a car off for my daughter, then drove to Jonesborough, TN for the National Storytelling Festival.
Once we got here to TN, we had to go to the opening night banquet to get packets and hug lots of people. After the meeting where we got the low down on how the festival was going to work, The Mister and I walked back to the hotel, stopping about six times to talk to people. It took us an hour to get three blocks. Got back to the room, ended up talking to Sheila Arnold and Darci Tucker until eleven, went over my emcee duty work until midnight…sleep.
Up this morning at 6:45am to breakfast with The Mister, went over the packet for emcee duties, got my introductions laid out for today…I’ll worry about the ones for tomorrow later tonight, ironed my outfit, and faced the fact that I hadn’t blogged in almost a month.
Artists are the things they live, and right now I am in transition.
I won’t stop being a storyteller.
I won’t stop blogging.
I’m doing lots of fiction writing.
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| You wake up one morning and they are gone! |
My touring season is ridiculous this year.
By the same token…
My kids are no longer at home.
My parents are aging and needing more care.
My husband and I are starting to work out the empty nest rest of our lives.
I’m trying to decide where I see myself in ten years.
Noticing the transition you are in when you hit it is helpful.
It can help you make decisions in a way that focuses your future. It can also help you decide what you want to keep and what you want to leave behind.
Your brain and body know more about you than the rushing life you lead. If you are exhausted, stress ill, sleepless, discontented, terrified, or worried and you don’t stop and address the pell-mell, headlong rush that is ridiculous speed, it will catch up with you and force you to stop.
I learned this the hard way many years ago!
Make sure you stop ridiculous speed every now and then and breathe.
Make sure you stop ridiculous speed every now and then and reflect.
Make sure you stop ridiculous speed every now and then and choose.
Make sure you stop ridiculous speed every now and then and consider what you are actually doing as opposed to what you want to be doing.
Some of us will not be free of ridiculous speed until we decide to switch to a lower gear.
That doesn’t mean you can’t take a quick break.
Ridiculous speed does not stop on its own.
You have to stop it.
Happy Telling!