Finding Time to Write

The little goldfish pond I added to my backyard

This time of the year my stress level increases. Actually, it starts increasing in the early spring and escalates until sometime in the fall when things start to calm down. Writing takes up a good part of my days, but so many other things interfere with my writing that I get frustrated.  I want more time to write.  I’m passionate about gardening, too. Over the years my gardens have grown beyond manageable size, and when you add the bitter cold until late in the season so I couldn’t get out and take care of early spring cleanup and planting, it put me behind. Also, we’ve had an excessive amount of rain that started in spring and is still continuing to make mowing and weeding difficult, especially making the weeds and grass grow like they’re on steroids. I still have some shrubs and plants I bought this spring that I have yet to plant.

 

Maggie in one of my gardens

Then there are the other activities; Mobile Meals every other Thursday, two book clubs, a local writers group and my SinC chapter both meet once a month, and I joined my church’s bereavement team, which isn’t exactly social, but did require a lot of meetings as we got organized. There were Malice Domestic, birthday parties, baby and wedding showers, picnics, a granddaughter’s graduation and her open house, monthly sibling nights, three book signings, a three day camping trip and other things I won’t bother to mention. Meanwhile the weeds grew and the rabbits ate most of the veggies I’d planted. I’ve hosted one of my book clubs here as well as a family reunion a couple of Sunday’s ago, and in July I flew to California for eight days to help my youngest daughter move into her new home. I’ll be flying out again in September to my daughter’s for ten days. My youngest sister and her husband will be driving down from Tacoma to visit and after touring San Francisco for three days we’re heading to Yosemite to camp.

 

Camping in Yosemite several years ago.

My calendar is filled with other activities, but there’s something else that’s time consuming, too. I’m not talking about my daily walks in the woods because those are relaxing. Actually, I find weeding relaxing, too. What I’m referring to are the critters I have which many of you have read about.

Maggie with my ponies, Puffy and Phoebe

I have two small ponies who are sisters. They are totally useless except that I love them. I downsized from horses, you see. I rationalize them by telling myself they’re good for compost, which is true except it also adds to the weed problem. Then there are my six hens. Messy stinky fowl, but they produce lovely brown or blue/green eggs which are delicious even though I don’t eat a lot of eggs and give almost all of them away.

I keep my bird feeders filled for the wild birds, too. Inside, I have two tabby cats who are sisters. Nice cats, but they need fed and their litter boxes need cleaned and some attention, too. I have a canary, Pavarotti, who sings beautifully and loves broccoli more than anything else, and two old African ring-neck doves, that were given to me for my classroom close to twenty years ago, but were only allowed to stay for several days. Does anyone know how long these kind of birds live? I don’t. I’m tired of cleaning bird cages, but I do love the sounds they make even though they’re messy birds.  Then there’s the biggest nuisance critter I have; Maggie, my tri-color collie. Yes, I love her.

Daylilies and phlox in another garden

 I enjoy our morning walks and the funny things she does, but she does require a lot of brushing, and a lot of time sweeping the carpet. She’s good at begging for treats, and I don’t always feel like throwing the toys she brings to me that I have to wrestle from her to throw again. There are the trips to the groomer every three months, too.  And when she wakes up from a nap and I’m busy writing, she doesn’t understand that I don’t want to play.

Maggie waiting to be brushed or for a belly rub

I’ve been trying to finish my fourth book as well as write a weekly blog while still trying to keep up with the digests from the various list serves I belong to (hopeless job that) and balancing all these other things including visits or phone calls from friends and family and wondering how I can simplify my life when it suddenly dawned on me.

I’m going to embrace the wild!

Members of my book club, friends who visit, etc. tell me they love my gardens and how peaceful and serene it is like a little oasis or an English country garden. I look around and see weeds. They look around and to the vast majority of visitors the weeds look just like more plants to them. Yes, I get great satisfaction in weeding and mulching sections of my gardens and making it look neat and cared for. And when I mow (not a riding lawn mower, either) and pass these gardens, I tell myself I need to start working on that garden and sometimes I do, but more often I never get to it. Since I can’t afford to hire even one let alone two or three gardeners, I’m going to have to look at my gardens the way the majority of my friends do and embrace their wildness. And now Maggie is awake and wanting attention so this blog needs to end. Now!

The sidewalk leading away from my back door.

What can you eliminate in your life to give you more time to write?