Back in the Saddle

I always appreciate it when God helps me out with the basics. I've been nothing short of overwhelmed lately. With work. With the kids. With laundry. With the need to feed people. What? You need to eat? Again? The basics. Now that summer is over and we've settled back into a routine — albeit a rather chaotic one — I've been wracked with guilt about not writing. And overwhelmed at the thought of when I could possibly squeeze that in. I mean, please.

At the same time I've been frustrated with the morning's increasing darkness. Bear and I walk each morning, and I had been doing it before the boys got up for school. That meant walking at 6 a.m. It's a great time to walk, so peaceful. But suddenly it became a little too dark for walking alone. Well, walking alone with the dog, who I know would protect me if called upon...but I do try not to be stupid.

Back to the guilt and the not writing and my inability to find even a sliver of time when I would not feel like I had to be doing something else. I just sort of presented all the overwhelming demands on my time to God and said, "Help!" And miraculously, my thoughts finally fell into place. Now don't be deceived...it's not like I've got the God hotline or anything. For weeks I've been trying to put this together. How to make the mornings work with everything that's required: Getting two boys off to school (in particular, helping them find their socks, which never seem to be in their drawers), starting another on his schoolwork, answering clients' e-mails, getting started on my work, walking the dog, spending time with God...and my big stumbling block: writing. Suddenly I saw the opportunity the darkness was giving me. I'm now writing at six o'clock each morning and walking the dog later. The truth is that if I don't write before everything starts to get crazy and people start needing things, then it's just never going to happen. So, I'm pretty happy about this. Wow...this is a really long post just to say that I started writing again.