Posted by Anne

I have something to admit.  The past two weeks, I’ve felt like a mess.  Frazzled, moody, and hanging on by a thread.  I know I’m not alone…in the world of higher education, universities are in the final push before school starts, and orientation ends.  As much as I love my role as a supervisor/teacher, I’m ready to have my routine back.  I’m ready to take a lunch break again.  I’m ready to find the energy to actually blow-dry my hair.

So it may go without saying, but these days “Life in Pencil” has been tough.  I want to make more time for a life without lists…I really do.  I want to stop and smell the roses.  I want to make a rich fall stew.  But mostly, I just wish I didn’t have to look at the same load of unfolded laundry that’s been sitting around for days.   I want the budget to balance itself.  I want to cook something new. My shelf of cookbooks has GOT to be feeling neglected lately.  I picked up take-out last night…something I rarely do.

I know, I know…woe is me.  Everyone’s busy.  The current craziness will pass.  But the chaos of my home (and the 8 million dog toys on my floor) got me wondering.  Do you ever reach a point where you just “don’t have time” to embrace a spontaneous schedule, and a sense of flexibility?  Are there times when the wiggle room in your schedule is just too darn cramped to wiggle?  Long about Monday evening, I was ready to conclude this.  I was ready to throw in the towel.  (Geez…that reminds me…I need to wash the towels.)  And then…something happened on the way to work.

There was a wreck.  Fear not…I wasn’t involved.  But I did approach the scene of the accident very soon after it happened.   And there was nowhere to go.  You see, my commute to work takes me along a two-lane country road.  So when both lanes are blocked, you’re stuck.  One after another, every single car in front of me turned around.  Went back the other direction.  So I looked closer.  A policeman directed us back from whence we came.  I panicked, and abruptly ended my phone conversation with my Mom.  How on earth was I supposed to get to work? How on earth would I avoid being late? And how would I accomplish the 30 items on my to-do- list that were supposed to take place between 8:00 and 9:00?

I started driving, stopped at the first convenient store, and frantically asked how to cut across the acres of farmland standing between me and my desk.  “Sorry…can’t cross the river until you get clear back to the next town.” Pardon me?  The next town was several miles back…virtually the entirety of my commute back towards home.  A did a quick calculation, and realized this would leave me in the car for the next 45 minutes at least.  I took a deep breath, and then…

I laughed. Because what else can you do when you’re at the end of your rope, and you lose an entire hour of your work-day?  And once I finished laughing, I looked at the farmland around me.  And the foothills of the coastal range to the west.  And I enjoyed 45 extra minutes of peace, before diving back into the madness.  It was a tiny victory, but a meaningful one just the same.

And so I concluded:  When your schedule is tight, and the wiggle room is gone…that’s when “Life in Pencil” isn’t just possible—it’s therapeutic.