I think I’m down to one load of laundry left, and I will be able to walk the path to my washing machine without having to climb over a pile of clothes. This is a miracle! With the help of the heat and it being a weekend, I managed to hang about six loads of laundry on the line today alone, and they are all now tucked away neatly in drawers. Is there anything more satisfying? I’m not sure.
I also managed to clear out the kid’s winter clothes, and things that no longer fit. I always find this a heart-wrenching experience. I hate to let go of certain favourite items. All you have to do is look at a particular t-shirt, or dress and the memories wash over you. Time is racing by, and I’m bracing myself for the next round of birthdays. Liam is soon to be six, and Meghan will be four by the end of the summer. How did we get here so quickly?
And it’s June tomorrow! How did that happen?
I think I can tell you. We didn’t notice the months flying by, because we were too busy being BUSY! So busy in fact, my life is beginning to look a little scary when I peek at the calendar. I race from home to school to work to home to event after event, and there’s no time. No time for laundry, and cleaning, and taking care of renewing insurance on the car, or getting my camera fixed (for the third time!).
And it all kind of hit the fan this week. The whole family is sick with varying symptoms, which has slowed things down considerably. And not in the good way of making you feel like you’re entitled to a little down time. No, this is more like the panic inducing kind of slow-down, because it makes you that much further behind on your commitments! You see where this is headed already, don’t you?
We missed the Bowker Creek Clean Up and Rubber Ducky race yesterday, because we were out buying hats and shoes for the kids. Long overdue purchases, might I add! Liam’s shoes were so worn out, that I was waiting for his toes to poke through at any minute. I had to console Liam for five minutes of sobbing disappointment about missing the ducky race. We’re going to do it on our own time next weekend. I promised. In the car en route to the next event, I’d planned to attend while they were racing ducks.
The Trees for Tomorrow’s Children event was great! There wasn’t a huge crowd, as we were competing with amazing beach weather, and the Burnside Gorge Community Festival. Our kids enjoyed the music and dancers, face painting, and making wishes for the children in their community to place on the trees going off to be planted at child care centres around the region. It was also great for me to reconnect with the Regional Child Care Council members. I have missed many afternoon meetings since I returned to work in January, and I miss those women!
It sort of hit me yesterday on the way home from the child care event. Over the last five months of working full-time, I have been missing meetings, arriving late for others, double-booking myself, watching laundry pile up, and seeing my own needs get neglected. I think it’s time I made some difficult decisions. I can’t do everything, if I want to do it well. I have to scale back my involvement in all these different issues, groups and projects. It’s just not fun anymore, and that’s a lot of why I am so involved in so many things, because I am interested and passionate about their work. It was fun.
I get so much satisfaction and stimulation from my volunteer jobs that it took getting to this place of over-drive, and over-done for me to realize how much I’d taken on. I love my work with the BC NDP, the Willows PAC, the Greater Victoria Regional Child Care Council, the Canadian Cancer Society and their push to ban cosmetic pesticides, the Oak Bay Community Association, and everything else I’ve been participating in to one degree or another. But I realized yesterday, something’s gotta go.
I have been slowly adding more and more to my pile, as I meet more people, and learn about new issues that interest me. And then I realize that if I don’t take some time out and go shopping, my son is going to have his toes hanging out of his shoes. My garden isn’t going to grow unless I look after it. My painting projects, half done all over this house, aren’t going to finish themselves (sadly). And I’m not one to put cleaning before anything else, but the sad fact of life is you can’t put it off forever. I also can’t keep my motor running constantly, or I too can burn out. Even if I just burn veggie fuel, it’s still not sustainable.
I have been really enjoying my work with the Oak Bay Community Association, and have committed to a two year term as a Director. I have been writing content for the website, and I really enjoy that kind of work. I actually love to write. Who knew? Officially, I’m the Association’s Director of Special Events, which I think is a good fit. I am looking forward to planning all kinds of fun activities that will bring my community together.
The Community Association has been such a positive experience so far. I’ve been on the losing end of too many issues and elections lately to feel like I’m making much headway on my other passions. I think this self-appointed activist is in need of a little down-time, to recharge. I want to focus on one thing, and do it well, rather than failing at a whole bunch of things.
And I love the idea of Asset-Based Community Development, which is essentially the work I’m doing with the Community Association. We’re focusing our efforts on building something that will prevent all kinds problems. I’m used to fighting to get people and governments to pay attention to problems, but for a while, I’d like to try it from another angle. I want to see if we can achieve more by coming at things from a more progressive, positive place. All I can do is try, and try I will…with a little less on my plate.
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