I See How It Is

In my years of soaps, I worked lots of hours, so many, in fact, that my salary was based on 12-hour days and I often logged a little overtime and short turnaround (fewer than nine hours between the end of one day and the beginning of another) to boot. The 40-hour work week many people talked about was not even close to my life. It was a long week, but most of the time, I loved it.
 
These days, such endless stretches are no longer my norm. Where soap work rarely spread into the weekends (far too expensive to pay a crew sixth or seventh day rates), news happens all the time. Thus, I have replaced long days with often long weeks, for, even when I only work five days in a week, those days can be nights, and quite often, those days can be most of my weekend. And in between, it's off to the next challenge, the next pickup, the next piece of life.
 
There are times when I'm tired--and then I remember the months out of work, when there were way too many hours to sleep. There are times when I'm overwhelmed--and then I realize that the days of intense involvement in my kids' lives will evaporate sooner than I realize. There are days when I feel in over my head--and then I consider how many "over my head" experiences I have conquered through the years.
 
And so, I manage the days, and the nights, and the weeks, and whatever is new this month. Because I know how it was. And I see how it is. And I continue to have hope for what it will be.