We just finished 6 days in a row of twelve hour days. For me, however, it’s been thirty five days in a row with no break: my “days off” reserved for writing and prepping a class to teach, mothering, cleaning, doing laundry and feeding the Algerians. I slap make up over the bags under my eyes, tease my hair up into a fabulous beehive and off we go for a matinee. And in my head I remember pace: no time between the ends of their sentences and the beginning of mine. No time to breathe. That’s excitement, that’s comedy. Suck the air out of the scene. Jump from impulse to impulse.
That’s definitely how life seems. I don’t have time to ponder my posts. I don’t have time to rewrite my opera. I don’t have time to rethink what I just pulled out of the closet to wear. If I forget an ingredient at the grocery store I have to replan the meal. There’s no time to go get eggs. My entire career has been a study on how to maintain tension.
No wonder when I come home I want as little drama as possible. The balance is the key to survival. Save the voice: speak gently. Slide into silk. Stretch. Drink a warm cup of peppermint tea.
Your “career has been a study on how to maintain tension” – so true and so well stated, and you still come up smiling!
xo