Staff Writer - Katrin Callender
Lately I’ve been feeling like a trainee clown, juggling all of my commitments. The music starts on every Monday morning and the audience screams, stares and snarls. Juggle clown, juggle. And don’t drop a single ball. So the pressure is on to put on a show. I think about all I’ve learned and I begin to juggle. My audience and I share a smile as I begin to grow confident. I can do it. I can juggle anything they throw at me. And, as if someone had heard this thought, a new ball flies at me. I know that I must catch it or face an angry mob, so I reach out –a little too hastily. Now I’ve lost balance and may fall. This is not happening!
It’s Sunday night, again. And all I feel is tired. I was supposed to rest over the weekend so I could start the new week ready for anything. But there was just too much to do. I want to complain. To say that the boss gave me too few hours to do what was expected; to say that all the interruptions to see how far we’d come were in fact the cause of this last minute rush to meet the deadline. You too might want to grind your teeth at the teacher who gave too much homework; yell at the cashier at the supermarket who didn’t seem to gather from your dress that you had somewhere important to be. We might want to curse at the world. But we know we were the only ones who could have prevented all the chaos of the weekend and our present exhaustion.
Photo courtesy international.zoomentertainment.com.au
I’ve learned that each of life’s activities is like a ball. We sometimes struggle to juggle the ones we have and feel certain to fail, when suddenly it becomes a little easier. So we assume that it will continue to be a cinch, and then you get thrown a new ball, just as you finally develop a rhythm with the ones you had before. I could regurgitate all the articles I’ve read on time management to help me survive this circus. But that might not help. Our lives can be so different so inexplicably crowded with people, events, and duties, that I should think it impossible for anyone to prescribe a cure that fits all.
The one thing that has been of assistance is learning to refuse as many new balls as I can. It can be so hard to say NO to a loved one or authority figure but sometimes it is the only thing that will save you from crashing to the floor amidst the balls that you’ve been juggling. Where a new ball/ commitment must be accepted, we must remember to pause, to breathe, to assess our situation and to carefully plan how we can collect it and not lose the others. Then we must act on it, slowly and carefully. I wish you well as you join me in the struggle to go on with the show!
