busy-ness aka doing everything all at once

The first part of this year has been quite hectic. I’ve booked, double booked, and occasionally triple-booked myself because … well, I have no clear answer. Perhaps it was the winter blues that got to me. Perhaps it was an inability to realise that sometimes, a girl just needs a break. Or, and this is more likely, it was entirely accidental.

In the words of Carlotta: “these things do ‘appen“.

DOING THINGS

Somehow, through no fault of my own, I ended up visiting a few countries. And none of them were Mongolia, Madagascar, or Morocco. One, however, was Wales. I would recommend.

I’ve learned some thing though (GASP. I know. I know) … for example, travel is made so much better with friends & family.

life is not the things that we do
it’s who we’re doing them with

Will Connolly, Cecily Smith

And I was lucky enough to make trips all with friends and/or family. I also got to travel with Hayden; a long discussed trip finally coming to fruition. We had many adventures, we caught some Shakespeare, some planes, some trains, some Ubers, and – just to make all things even – a boat. One could say that at this point, we are professionals. (And it definitely was not me who booked our train return tickets on the wrong day. Nope. I would never. I absolutely did.)

And another thing I’ve learned? I’ve occasionally declared myself to be a pessimistic optimist. Or an optimistic pessimist. One of those. However, when it comes to Zadok the Priest? I’m all pessimist. I can’t sing it. I’m sorry, I tried, but I don’t think I could reach that high even if I grew several feet. And yes, that’s a good joke. Please laugh. Thank you.

READING / WRITING

I’m on track to reach my reading goal this year. It’s a nice feeling. There were some reading highlights, and then there were some really terrible not-highlights (I am side-eying Revenge of the Horseclans so hard that my eyeballs are in danger of falling out.)

What about writing? Ah. Yes. Writing. This was not one of my top priorities at the beginning of the year. However! I don’t intend to be quite so busy, which means I have time … which means I can write and am writing. (Ze logick iz exquizite.)

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Work is ticking along. The next-door library is still there. The blossoms are out in the woods, flowers everywhere are in bloom, the sun seems to shine just a little bit brighter and the days stretch a little longer.

I’ve learned a small lesson about moderation; that doing everything can be done (or rather, attempted), but should it? For me, I think, I’m grateful to have been able to do so much! But oh, it’s so pleasant to slow down sometimes. There’s a time to be busy, and there’s also a time to not be so busy.

But, you know, there’s always a time to overuse italics to pick up a book.