Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Not Easy

It is not easy to add something to an already long day, whether that day is your own, which began with work overnight, or your child's, which has been filled with the business of class work and homework and plain old getting along. Yet, there are days when something else begs--no, demands--to be added. So when, then, is an add just an add, and when is it too much? And how, on a daily basis, do we know the difference? 
 
So, let's see--I was probably tired at the end of a long day when I went to many a Children's Media Association event, where I met all sorts of new contacts and friends. I was tired at the end of a long day of Associate Directing when I went home to prepare for directing scenes the next day, which gave me a rush and some extra money in the bank. I was tired at the end of a long day when I went out to a family dinner that tasted and felt great.


Quite often, the events and experiences for which we have to push ourselves beyond the energy we think we have become some of the most memorable ones in our lives. 

All I really wanted was to sleep a little more. And feeling that way, I was mighty inclined to let one of my kids do the same. Instead, I said, "let's try" (and more compellingly, "because I said so"). And because I said so, and because he helped serve dinner to a food insecure crowd, he came home with a little more to think about. And because, tired at the end of a long day, I walked along with him and saw a little of my own table-moving skills and a lot of the best of him, I came home actually feeling a little energized. 

It would have been far easier to walk home and shut down. It would have been far easier to give in to routine and comfort and what we wanted in that moment. But then we wouldn't have ended up with what we got. So maybe easier isn't always better...

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